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VOLUME 9,ii. OF THp
COLLECTED WORKS OF

AION

RESEARCHES INTO THE PHENOMENOLOGY
OF THE SELF

SECOND EDITION

BOLUNGEN SERIES XX

PRINCETON

Second edition, s

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF

C. G.JUNG

VOLUME 9, PART II

AION

RESEARCHES INTO THE
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SELF

Translated by R. F. C. Hull

A/on, originally published in 1951, is one of
the major works of C. G. Jung's later years.

The central theme of the volume is the sym-
bolical representation of the psychic totality
through the concept of the Self, whose tradi-
tional historical equivalent is the figure of
Christ. Professor Jung demonstrates his thesis
by an investigation of the A//egor/ae Christi,
especially the fish symbol, but also of Gnostic
and alchemical symbolism, which he treats as
phenomena of cultural assimilation. The astro-
logical aspect of the fish symbol and, in par-
ticular, the foretelling of the Antichrist are dis-
cussed in detail. The first four chapters, on the
ego, the shadow, and the anima and animus,
compose a valuable summation of these key
concepts in Jung's system of psychology.

As a study of the archetype of the self, Aion
complements the first part of Volume 9, The
Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,
which is being published separately.

For the second edition, textual corrections
have been made and the notes and bibliogra-
phy have been brought up to date.

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013

http://archive.org/details/collectedworksof92cgju

BOLLINGEN SERIES XX

THE COLLECTED WORKS

C. G. JUNG

VOLUME 9, PART II

EDITORS

SIR HERBERT READ

MICHAEL FORDHAM, M.D., M.R.C.P.

GERHARD ADLER, PH.D.

William mcguire, executive editor

The Mithraic god Aion
Roman, 2iid-^rd century

AION

RESEARCHES INTO THE
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SELF

C. G. JUNG

SECOND EDITION

TRANSLATED BY R. F. C. HULL

BOLLINGEN SERIES XX

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON, N. J.

Second edition, with corrections and
minor revisions, 1968
Second printing, 1970

THIS EDITION IS BEING PUBLISHED IN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY PRINCETON
UNIVERSITY PRESS, AND IN ENGLAND BY
ROUTLEDGE AND KEGAN PAUL, LTD. IN THE
AMERICAN EDITION, ALL THE VOLUMES
COMPRISING THE COLLECTED WORKS CON-
STITUTE NUMBER XX IN BOLLINGEN SERIES.
THE PRESENT VOLUME IS NUMBER 9 OF THE
COLLECTED WORKS, AND WAS THE EIGHTH
TO APPEAR. IT IS IN TWO PARTS, PUBLISHED
SEPARATELY, THIS BEING PART II.

Translated from the first part of Aion: Untersuchungen zur Symbolgeschichte
(Psychologische Abhandlungen, VIII), published by Rascher Verlag, Zurich, 1951.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 75-156

ISBN O-69I-O9759-3

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

EDITORIAL NOTE

Volume 9 of the Collected Works is devoted to studies of the
specific archetypes of the collective unconscious. Part I, entitled
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, is composed of
shorter essays; Part II, Aion, is a long monograph on the arche-
type of the self. The author has agreed to a modification of the
sub-title of Aion, which in the Swiss edition appeared in two
forms, "Researches into the History of Symbols" and "Contribu-
tions to the Symbolism of the Self." The first five chapters were
previously published, with small differences, in Psyche and Sym-
bol: A Selection from the Writings of C. G. Jung, edited by
Violet S. de Laszlo (Anchor Books, Garden City, New York,

1958).

EDITORIAL NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION

For this edition corrections have been made in the text and
footnotes and the bibliographical references have been brought
up to date in relation to the Collected Works. The translation
has been corrected in light of further experience of translating
Jung's works.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following persons,
whose translations have been consulted during the preparation
of the present work: Mr. William H. Kennedy, for extensive
use of his translation of portions of chapters 2 and 3, issued as
"Shadow, Animus, and Anima" by the Analytical Psychology
Club of New York, 1950; Dr. Hildegarde Nagel, for reference
to her translation of the original Eranos-Jahrbuch version (1949)
of "Concerning the Self," in Spring, 1951, which original ver-
sion the author later expanded into Aion, chapters 4 and 5; and
Miss Barbara Hannah and Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz, for
helpful advice with the remaining chapters. Especial thanks are
due to Mr. A. S. B. Glover, who (unless otherwise noted) trans-
lated the Latin and Greek texts throughout. References to pub-
lished sources are given for the sake of completeness.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EDITORIAL NOTES V

translator's note vi

LIST OF PLATES viii

FOREWORD ix

I. The Ego 3

II. The Shadow 8

III. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus 1 1

IV. The Self 23

V. Christ, a Symbol of the Self 36

VI. The Sign of the Fishes 72

VII. The Prophecies of Nostradamus 95

VIII. The Historical Significance of the Fish 103

IX. The Ambivalence of the Fish Symbol 1 1 8

X. The Fish in Alchemy 126
1. The Medusa, 126 — 2. The Fish, 137 — 3. The Fish
Symbol of the Cathars, 145

XI. The Alchemical Interpretation of the Fish 154
XII. Background to the Psychology of Christian

Alchemical Symbolism 173

XIII. Gnostic Symbols of the Self 184

XIV. The Structure and Dynamics of the Self 222
XV. Conclusion 266

BIBLIOGRAPHY 27 1

INDEX 3OI

vii

LIST OF PLATES

The Mithraic god Aion

Roman, 2nd~3rd century. Museo Profano, Vatican, p: Alinari.

frontispiece

I. The Four Elements

Michael Maier, Scrutinium chymicum (1687), Emblema XVII, p. 49.

following page 250

II. The Trinity

From a manuscript by Joachim of Flora. Graphics Collection, Zurich
Central Library, B x 606. following page 254

Vlll

FOREWORD

The theme of this work 1 is the idea of the Aeon (Greek, Aion).
My investigation seeks, with the help of Christian, Gnostic, and
alchemical symbols of the self, to throw light on the change of
psychic situation within the "Christian aeon." Christian tradi-
tion from the outset is not only saturated with Persian and
Jewish ideas about the beginning and end of time, but is filled
with intimations of a kind of enantiodromian reversal of domi-
nants. I mean by this the dilemma of Christ and Antichrist.
Probably most of the historical speculations about time and the
division of time were influenced, as the Apocalypse shows, by
astrological ideas. It is therefore only natural that my reflections
should gravitate mainly round the symbol of the Fishes, for the
Pisces aeon is the synchronistic concomitant of two thousand
years of Christian development. In this time-period not only
was the figure of the Anthropos (the "Son of Man") progres-
sively amplified symbolically, and thus assimilated psychologi-
cally, but it brought with it changes in man's attitude that had
already been anticipated by the expectation of the Antichrist
in the ancient texts. Because these texts relegate the appearance
of Antichrist to the end of time, we are justified in speaking of
a "Christian aeon," which, it was presupposed, would find its
end with the Second Coming. It seems as if this expectation
coincides with the astrological conception of the "Platonic
month" of the Fishes.

i [In the Swiss edition, this foreword begins as follows: "In this volume (VIII of
the Psychologische Abhandlungen) I am bringing out two works which, despite
their inner and outer differences, belong together in so far as they both treat
of the great theme of this book, namely the idea of the Aeon (Greek, Aion).
While the contribution of my co-worker, Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz, describes
the psychological transition from antiquity to Christianity by analysing the Pas-
sion of St. Perpetua, my own investigation seeks, with the help of" etc., as above.
Dr. von Franz's "Die Passio Perpetuae" is omitted from the present volume.
—Editors.]

FOREWORD

The immediate occasion for my proposing to discuss these
historical questions is the fact that the archetypal image of
wholeness, which appears so frequently in the products of the
unconscious, has its forerunners in history. These were identi-
fied very early with the figure of Christ, as I have shown in my
book Psychology and Alchemy.2 I have been requested so often
by my readers to discuss the relations between the traditional
Christ-figure and the natural symbols of wholeness, or the
self, that I finally decided to take this task in hand. Considering
the unusual difficulties of such an undertaking, my decision did
not come easily to me, for, in order to surmount all the ob-
stacles and possibilities of error, a knowledge and caution would
be needed which, unfortunately, are vouchsafed me only in
limited degree. I am moderately certain of my observations on
the empirical material, but I am fully aware of the risk I am
taking in drawing the testimonies of history into the scope of
my reflections. I think I also know the responsibility I am tak-
ing upon myself when, as though continuing the historical
process of assimilation, I add to the many symbolical amplifica-
tions of the Christ-figure yet another, the psychological one, or
even, so it might seem, reduce the Christ-symbol to a psycho-
logical image of wholeness. My reader should never forget, how-
ever, that I am not making a confession of faith or writing a
tendentious tract, but am simply considering how certain
things could be understood from the standpoint of our modern
consciousness— things which I deem it valuable to understand,
and which are obviously in danger of being swallowed up in the
abyss of incomprehension and oblivion; things, finally, whose
understanding would do much to remedy our philosophic dis-
orientation by shedding light on the psychic background and
the secret chambers of the soul. The essence of this book was
built up gradually, in the course of many years, in countless
conversations with people of all ages and all walks of life; with
people who in the confusion and uprootedness of our society
were likely to lose all contact with the meaning of European
culture and to fall into that state of suggestibility which is the
occasion and cause of the Utopian mass-psychoses of our time.

I write as a physician, with a physician's sense of respon-
sibility, and not as a proselyte. Nor do I write as a scholar,

2 [Ch. 5, "The Lapis-Christ Parallel."]

FOREWORD

otherwise I would wisely barricade myself behind the safe walls
of my specialism and not, on account of my inadequate knowl-
edge of history, expose myself to critical attack and damage my
scientific reputation. So far as my capacities allow, restricted as
they are by old age and illness, I have made every effort to docu-
ment my material as reliably as possible and to assist the veri-
fication of my conclusions by citing the sources.

C. G. Jung
May 1950

AION

RESEARCHES INTO THE PHENOMENOLOGY
OF THE SELF

These things came to pass, they say, that Jesus
might be made the first sacrifice in the discrim-
ination of composite natures.

Hippolytus, Elenchos, VII, 27, 8

THE EGO

Investigation of the psychology of the unconscious con-
fronted me with facts which required the formulation of new
concepts. One of these concepts is the self. The entity so denoted
is not meant to take the place of the one that has always been
known as the ego, but includes it in a supraordinate concept.
We understand the ego as the complex factor to which all con-
scious contents are related. It forms, as it were, the centre of the
field of consciousness; and, in so far as this comprises the em-
pirical personality, the ego is the subject of all personal acts of
consciousness. The relation of a psychic content to the ego forms
the criterion of its consciousness, for no content can be con-
scious unless it is represented to a subject.

With this definition we have described and delimited the
scope of the subject. Theoretically, no limits can be set to the
field of consciousness, since it is capable of indefinite extension.
Empirically, however, it always finds its limit when it comes up
against the unknown. This consists of everything we do not
know, which, therefore, is not related to the ego as the centre
of the field of consciousness. The unknown falls into two groups
of objects: those which are outside and can be experienced by
the senses, and those which are inside and are experienced im-
mediately. The first group comprises the unknown in the outer
world; the second the unknown in the inner world. We call this
latter territory the unconscious.

The ego, as a specific content of consciousness, is not a sim-
ple or elementary factor but a complex one which, as such,
cannot be described exhaustively. Experience shows that it rests
on two seemingly different bases: the somatic and the psychic.
The somatic basis is inferred from the totality of endosomatic
perceptions, which for their part are already of a psychic nature
and are associated with the ego, and are therefore conscious.
They are produced by endosomatic stimuli, only some of which

AION

cross the threshold of consciousness. A considerable proportion
of these stimuli occur unconsciously, that is, subliminally. The
fact that they are subliminal does not necessarily mean that their
status is merely physiological, any more than this would be true
of a psychic content. Sometimes they are capable of crossing the
threshold, that is, of becoming perceptions. But there is no
doubt that a large proportion of these endosomatic stimuli are
simply incapable of consciousness and are so elementary that
there is no reason to assign them a psychic nature— unless of
course one favours the philosophical view that all life-processes
are psychic anyway. The chief objection to this hardly demon-
strable hypothesis is that it enlarges the concept of the psyche
beyond all bounds and interprets the life-process in a way not
absolutely warranted by the facts. Concepts that are too broad
usually prove to be unsuitable instruments because they are too
vague and nebulous. I have therefore suggested that the term
"psychic" be used only where there is evidence of a will capable
of modifying reflex or instinctual processes. Here I must refer
the reader to my paper "On the Nature of the Psyche," * where
I have discussed this definition of the "psychic" at somewhat
greater length.

The somatic basis of the ego consists, then, of conscious and
unconscious factors. The same is true of the psychic basis: on
the one hand the ego rests on the total field of consciousness,
and on the other, on the sum total of unconscious contents.
These fall into three groups: first, temporarily subliminal con-
tents that can be reproduced voluntarily (memory); second,
unconscious contents that cannot be reproduced voluntarily;
third, contents that are not capable of becoming conscious at all.
Group two can be inferred from the spontaneous irruption of
subliminal contents into consciousness. Group three is hypo-
thetical; it is a logical inference from the facts underlying group
two. It contains contents which have not yet irrupted into con-
sciousness, or which never will.

When I said that the ego "rests" on the total field of con-
sciousness I do not mean that it consists of this. Were that so, it
would be indistinguishable from the field of consciousness as a
whole. The ego is only the latter's point of reference, grounded
on and limited by the somatic factor described above,
l Pars. 37 iff.

THE EGO

Although its bases are in themselves relatively unknown and
unconscious, the ego is a conscious factor par excellence. It is
even acquired, empirically speaking, during the individual's
lifetime. It seems to arise in the first place from the collision
between the somatic factor and the environment, and, once
established as a subject, it goes on developing from further col-
lisions with the outer world and the inner.

Despite the unlimited extent of its bases, the ego is never
more and never less than consciousness as a whole. As a con-
scious factor the ego could, theoretically at least, be described
completely. But this would never amount to more than a pic-
ture of the conscious personality; all those features which are
unknown or unconscious to the subject would be missing. A
total picture would have to include these. But a total descrip-
tion of the personality is, even in theory, absolutely impossible,
because the unconscious portion of it cannot be grasped cogni-
tively. This unconscious portion, as experience has abundantly
shown, is by no means unimportant. On the contrary, the most
decisive qualities in a person are often unconscious and can be
perceived only by others, or have to be laboriously discovered
with outside help.

Clearly, then, the personality as a total phenomenon does
not coincide with the ego, that is, with the conscious personality,
but forms an entity that has to be distinguished from the ego.
Naturally the need to do this is incumbent only on a psychology
that reckons with the fact of the unconscious, but for such a
psychology the distinction is of paramount importance. Even for
jurisprudence it should be of some importance whether certain
psychic facts are conscious or not — for instance, in adjudging the
question of responsibility.

I have suggested calling the total personality which, though
present, cannot be fully known, the self. The ego is, by defini-
tion, subordinate to the self and is related to it like a part to the
whole. Inside the field of consciousness it has, as we say, free
will. By this I do not mean anything philosophical, only the
well-known psychological fact of "free choice," or rather the sub-
jective feeling of freedom. But, just as our free will clashes with
necessity in the outside world, so also it finds its limits outside
the field of consciousness in the subjective inner world, where
it comes into conflict with the facts of the self. And just as

AION

circumstances or outside events "happen" to us and limit our
freedom, so the self acts upon the ego like an objective occur-
rence which free will can do very little to alter. It is, indeed, well
known that the ego not only can do nothing against the self, but
is sometimes actually assimilated by unconscious components
of the personality that are in the process of development and
is greatly altered by them.

It is, in the nature of the case, impossible to give any general
description of the ego except a formal one. Any other mode of
observation would have to take account of the individuality
which attaches to the ego as one of its main characteristics. Al-
though the numerous elements composing this complex factor
are, in themselves, everywhere the same, they are infinitely
varied as regards clarity, emotional colouring, and scope. The
result of their combination— the ego— is therefore, so far as one
can judge, individual and unique, and retains its identity up
to a certain point. Its stability is relative, because far-reaching
changes of personality can sometimes occur. Alterations of this
kind need not always be pathological; they can also be develop-
mental and hence fall within the scope of the normal.

Since it is the point of reference for the field of conscious-
ness, the ego is the subject of all successful attempts at adapta-
tion so far as these are achieved by the will. The ego therefore
has a significant part to play in the psychic economy. Its position
there is so important that there are good grounds for the prej-
udice that the ego is the centre of the personality, and that the
field of consciousness is the psyche per se. If we discount certain
suggestive ideas in Leibniz, Kant, Schelling, and Schopenhauer,
and the philosophical excursions of Carus and von Hartmann, it
is only since the end of the nineteenth century that modern
psychology, with its inductive methods, has discovered the
foundations of consciousness and proved empirically the exist-
ence of a psyche outside consciousness. With this discovery the
position of the ego, till then absolute, became relativized; that
is to say, though it retains its quality as the centre of the field of
consciousness, it is questionable whether it is the centre of the
personality. It is part of the personality but not the whole of it.
As I have said, it is simply impossible to estimate how large or
how small its share is; how free or how dependent it is on the
qualities of this "extra-conscious" psyche. We can only say that

THE EGO

its freedom is limited and its dependence proved in ways that
are often decisive. In my experience one would do well not to
underestimate its dependence on the unconscious. Naturally
there is no need to say this to persons who already overestimate
the latter's importance. Some criterion for the right measure is
afforded by the psychic consequences of a wrong estimate, a
point to which we shall return later on.
" We have seen that, from the standpoint of the psychology of
consciousness, the unconscious can be divided into three groups
of contents. But from the standpoint of the psychology of the
personality a twofold division ensues: an "extra-conscious"
psyche whose contents are personal, and an "extra-conscious"
psyche whose contents are impersonal and collective. The first
group comprises contents which are integral components of the
individual personality and could therefore just as well be con-
scious; the second group forms, as it were, an omnipresent, un-
changing, and everywhere identical quality or substrate of the
psyche per se. This is, of course, no more than a hypothesis. But
we are driven to it by the peculiar nature of the empirical ma-
terial, not to mention the high probability that the general
similarity of psychic processes in all individuals must be based
on an equally general and impersonal principle that conforms
to law, just as the instinct manifesting itself in the individual is
only the partial manifestation of an instinctual substrate com-
mon to all men.

THE SHADOW

»3 Whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are ac-
quired during the individual's lifetime, the contents of the col-
lective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present
from the beginning. Their relation to the instincts has been dis-
cussed elsewhere.1 The archetypes most clearly characterized
from the empirical point of view are those which have the most
frequent and the most disturbing influence on the ego. These
are the shadow, the anima, and the animus.2 The most accessible
of these, and the easiest to experience, is the shadow, for its
nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the
personal unconscious. The only exceptions to this rule are those
rather rare cases where the positive qualities of the personality
are repressed, and the ego in consequence plays an essentially
negative or unfavourable role.

H The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole
ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow
without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it
involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as pres-
ent and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of
self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with consider-
able resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic
measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending
over a long period.

*5 Closer examination of the dark characteristics— that is, the
inferiorities constituting the shadow— reveals that they have an
emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an ob-
sessive or, better, possessive quality. Emotion, incidentally, is

1 "Instinct and the Unconscious" and "On the Nature of the Psyche," pars. 3978.

2 The contents of this and the following chapter are taken from a lecture deliv-
ered to the Swiss Society for Practical Psychology, in Zurich, 1948. The material
was first published in the Wiener Zeitschrift fur Nervenheilkunde und deren
Grenzgebiete, I (1948) : 4.

THE SHADOW

not an activity of the individual but something that happens to
him. Affects occur usually where adaptation is weakest, and at
the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a
certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level
of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or
scarcely controlled emotions one behaves more or less like a
primitive, who is not only the passive victim of his affects but
also singularly incapable of moral judgment.

16 Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to
some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, expe-
rience shows that there are certain features which offer the most
obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impos-
sible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with
projections, which are not recognized as such, and their recogni-
tion is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary. While some
traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too
much difficulty as one's own personal qualities, in this case both
insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the
emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the
other person. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral
observer that it is a matter of projections, there is little hope
that the subject will perceive this himself. He must be con-
vinced that he throws a very long shadow before he is willing to
withdraw his emotionally-toned projections from their object.

*7 Let us suppose that a certain individual shows no inclina-
tion whatever to recognize his projections. The projection-mak-
ing factor then has a free hand and can realize its object— if it has
one— or bring about some other situation characteristic of its
power. As we know, it is not the conscious subject but the
unconscious which does the projecting. Hence one meets with
projections, one does not make them. The effect of projection is
to isolate the subject from his environment, since instead of a
real relation to it there is now only an illusory one. Projections
change the world into the replica of one's own unknown face. In
the last analysis, therefore, they lead to an autoerotic or autistic
condition in which one dreams a world whose reality remains
forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d'incompletude
and the still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained
by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by
means of this vicious circle the isolation is intensified. The more

AION

projections are thrust in between the subject and the environ-
ment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusions. A
forty-five-year-old patient who had suffered from a compulsion
neurosis since he was twenty and had become completely cut off
from the world once said to me: "But I can never admit to my-
self that I've wasted the best twenty-five years of my life!"

18 It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own
life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of see-
ing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how
he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of
course— for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a
faithless world that recedes further and further into the dis-
tance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illu-
sions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon,
which in the end will completely envelop him.

J9 One might assume that projections like these, which are so
very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, would belong to the
realm of the shadow— that is, to the negative side of the person-
ality. This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point,
because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the
same but to the opposite sex, in a man's case to a woman and
vice versa. The source of projections is no longer the shadow—
which is always of the same sex as the subject— but a contrasexual
figure. Here we meet the animus of a woman and the anima of a
man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and uncon-
sciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections. Though
the shadow is a motif as well known to mythology as anima and
animus, it represents first and foremost the personal uncon-
scious, and its content can therefore be made conscious without
too much difficulty. In this it differs from anima and animus,
for whereas the shadow can be seen through and recognized
fairly easily, the anima and animus are much further away from
consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever
realized. With a little self-criticism one can see through the
shadow— so far as its nature is personal. But when it appears as
an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima
and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of
possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature,
but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into
the face of absolute evil.

Ill

THE SYZYGY: ANIMA AND ANIMUS

2° What, then, is this projection-making factor? The East calls
it the "Spinning Woman" x— Maya, who creates illusion by her
dancing. Had we not long since known it from the symbolism
of dreams, this hint from the Orient would put us on the right
track: the enveloping, embracing, and devouring element points
unmistakably to the mother,2 that is, to the son's relation to the
real mother, to her imago, and to the woman who is to become
a mother for him. His Eros is passive like a child's; he hopes to
be caught, sucked in, enveloped, and devoured. He seeks, as it
were, the protecting, nourishing, charmed circle of the mother,
the condition of the infant released from every care, in which
the outside world bends over him and even forces happiness
upon him. No wonder the real world vanishes from sight!

21 If this situation is dramatized, as the unconscious usually
dramatizes it, then there appears before you on the psychological
stage a man living regressively, seeking his childhood and his
mother, fleeing from a cold cruel world which denies him under-
standing. Often a mother appears beside him who apparently
shows not the slightest concern that her little son should become
a man, but who, with tireless and self-immolating effort, neglects
nothing that might hinder him from growing up and marrying.
You behold the secret conspiracy between mother and son, and
how each helps the other to betray life.

22 Where does the guilt lie? With the mother, or with the son?
Probably with both. The unsatisfied longing of the son for life
and the world ought to be taken seriously. There is in him a

1 Erwin Rousselle, "Seelische Fiihrung im lebenden Taoismus," PI. I, pp. 150, 170.
Rousselle calls the spinning woman the "animal soul." There is a saying that
runs, "The spinner sets in motion." I have denned the anima as a personification
of the unconscious.

2 Here and in what follows, the word "mother" is not meant in the literal sense
but as a symbol of everything that functions as a mother.

AION

desire to touch reality, to embrace the earth and fructify the
field of the world. But he makes no more than a series of fitful
starts, for his initiative as well as his staying power are crippled
by the secret memory that the world and happiness may be had
as a gift— from the mother. The fragment of world which he, like
every man, must encounter again and again is never quite the
right one, since it does not'fall into his lap, does not meet him
half way, but remains resistant, has to be conquered, and sub-
mits only to force. It makes demands on the masculinity of a
man, on his ardour, above all on his courage and resolution
when it comes to throwing his whole being into the scales. For
this he would need a faithless Eros, one capable of forgetting his
mother and undergoing the pain of relinquishing the first love
of his life. The mother, foreseeing this danger, has carefully in-
culcated into him the virtues of faithfulness, devotion, loyalty,
so as to protect him from the moral disruption which is the risk
of every life adventure. He has learnt these lessons only too well,
and remains true to his mother. This naturally causes her the
deepest anxiety (when, to her greater glory, he turns out to be
a homosexual, for example) and at the same time affords her an
unconscious satisfaction that is positively mythological. For, in
the relationship now reigning between them, there is consum-
mated the immemorial and most sacred archetype of the mar-
riage of mother and son. What, after all, has commonplace
reality to offer, with its registry offices, pay envelopes, and
monthly rent, that could outweigh the mystic awe of the hieros
gamos? Or the star-crowned woman whom the dragon pursues,
or the pious obscurities veiling the marriage of the Lamb?

23 This myth, better than any other, illustrates the nature of
the collective unconscious. At this level the mother is both old
and young, Demeter and Persephone, and the son is spouse and
sleeping suckling rolled into one. The imperfections of real life,
with its laborious adaptations and manifold disappointments,
naturally cannot compete with such a state of indescribable ful-
filment.

24 In the case of the son, the projection-making factor is iden-
tical with the mother-imago, and this is consequently taken to
be the real mother. The projection can only be dissolved when
the son sees that in the realm of his psyche there is an imago not
only of the mother but of the daughter, the sister, the beloved,

the syzygy: anima and animus

the heavenly goddess, and the chthonic Baubo. Every mother
and every beloved is forced to become the carrier and embodi-
ment of this omnipresent and ageless image, which corresponds
to the deepest reality in a man. It belongs to him, this perilous
image of Woman; she stands for the loyalty which in the inter-
ests of life he must sometimes forgo; she is the much needed
compensation for the risks, struggles, sacrifices that all end in
disappointment; she is the solace for all the bitterness of life.
And, at the same time, she is the great illusionist, the seductress,
who draws him into life with her Maya— and not only into life's
reasonable and useful aspects, but into its frightful paradoxes
and ambivalences where good and evil, success and ruin, hope
and despair, counterbalance one another. Because she is his
greatest danger she demands from a man his greatest, and if he
has it in him she will receive it.

25 This image is "My Lady Soul," as Spitteler called her. I have
suggested instead the term "anima," as indicating something
specific, for which the expression "soul" is too general and too
vague. The empirical reality summed up under the concept of
the anima forms an extremely dramatic content of the uncon-
scious. It is possible to describe this content in rational, scien-
tific language, but in this way one entirely fails to express its
living character. Therefore, in describing the living processes of
the psyche, I deliberately and consciously give preference to
a dramatic, mythological way of thinking and speaking, because
this is not only more expressive but also more exact than an
abstract scientific terminology, which is wont to toy with the
notion that its theoretic formulations may one fine day be
resolved into algebraic equations.

*6 The projection-making factor is the anima, or rather the
unconscious as represented by the anima. Whenever she appears,
in dreams, visions, and fantasies, she takes on personified form,
thus demonstrating that the factor she embodies possesses all the
outstanding characteristics of a feminine being.3 She is not an
invention of the conscious, but a spontaneous product of the

3 Naturally, she is a typical figure in belles-lettres. Recent publications on the
subject of the anima include Linda Fierz-David, The Dream of Poliphilo, and my
"Psychology of the Transference." The anima as a psychological idea first appears
in the i6th-cent. humanist Richardus Vitus. Cf. my Mysterium Coniunctionis,
pars. 9 iff.

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unconscious. Nor is she a substitute figure for the mother. On
the contrary, there is every likelihood that the numinous quali-
ties which make the mother-imago so dangerously powerful
derive from the collective archetype of the anima, which is in-
carnated anew in every male child.

27 Since the anima is an archetype that is found in men, it is
reasonable to suppose that an equivalent archetype must be
present in women; for just as the man is compensated by a
feminine element, so woman is compensated by a masculine
one. I do not, however, wish this argument to give the impres-
sion that these compensatory relationships were arrived at by
deduction. On the contrary, long and varied experience was
needed in order to grasp the nature of anima and animus em-
pirically. Whatever we have to say about these archetypes, there-
fore, is either directly verifiable or at least rendered probable
by the facts. At the same time, I am fully aware that we are dis-
cussing pioneer work which by its very nature can only be
provisional.

28 Just as the mother seems to be the first carrier of the projec-
tion-making factor for the son, so is the father for the daughter.
Practical experience of these relationships is made up of many
individual cases presenting all kinds of variations on the same
basic theme. A concise description of them can, therefore, be
no more than schematic.

29 Woman is compensated by a masculine element and there-
fore her unconscious has, so to speak, a masculine imprint. This
results in a considerable psychological difference between men
and women, and accordingly I have called the projection-mak-
ing factor in women the animus, which means mind or spirit.
The animus corresponds to the paternal Logos just as the
anima corresponds to the maternal Eros. But I do not wish or
intend to give these two intuitive concepts too specific a defini-
tion. I use Eros and Logos merely as conceptual aids to describe
the fact that woman's consciousness is characterized more by
the connective quality of Eros than by the discrimination and
cognition associated with Logos. In men, Eros, the function of
relationship, is usually less developed than Logos. In women, on
the other hand, Eros is an expression of their true nature, while
their Logos is often only a regrettable accident. It gives rise to
misunderstandings and annoying interpretations in the family

the syzygy: anima and animus

circle and among friends. This is because it consists of opinions
instead of reflections, and by opinions I mean a priori assump-
tions that lay claim to absolute truth. Such assumptions, as
everyone knows, can be extremely irritating. As the animus is
partial to argument, he can best be seen at work in disputes
where both parties know they are right. Men can argue in a very
womanish way, too, when they are anima-possessed and have
thus been transformed into the animus of their own anima.
With them the question becomes one of personal vanity and
touchiness (as if they were females); with women it is a question
of power, whether of truth or justice or some other "ism" — for
the dressmaker and hairdresser have already taken care of their
vanity. The "Father" (i.e., the sum of conventional opinions)
always plays a great role in female argumentation. No matter
how friendly and obliging a woman's Eros may be, no logic on
earth can shake her if she is ridden by the animus. Often the
man has the feeling— and he is not altogether wrong— that only
seduction or a beating or rape would have the necessary power
of persuasion. He is unaware that this highly dramatic situa-
tion would instantly come to a banal and unexciting end if he
were to quit the field and let a second woman carry on the battle
(his wife, for instance, if she herself is not the fiery war horse).
This sound idea seldom or never occurs to him, because no man
can converse with an animus for five minutes without becom-
ing the victim of his own anima. Anyone who still had enough
sense of humour to listen objectively to the ensuing dialogue
would be staggered by the vast number of commonplaces, mis-
applied truisms, cliches from newspapers and novels, shop-
soiled platitudes of every description interspersed with vulgar
abuse and brain-splitting lack of logic. It is a dialogue which,
irrespective of its participants, is repeated millions and millions
of times in all the languages of the world and always remains
essentially the same.
3° This singular fact is due to the following circumstance:
when animus and anima meet, the animus draws his sword of
power and the anima ejects her poison of illusion and seduc-
tion. The outcome need not always be negative, since the two
are equally likely to fall in love (a special instance of love at first
sight). The language of love is of astonishing uniformity, using
the well-worn formulas with the utmost devotion and fidelity,

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so that once again the two partners find themselves in a banal
collective situation. Yet they live in the illusion that they are
related to one another in a most individual way.

31 In both its positive and its negative aspects the anima/animus
relationship is always full of "animosity," i.e., it is emotional,
and hence collective. Affects lower the level of the relationship
and bring it closer to the common instinctual basis, which no
longer has anything individual about it. Very often the rela-
tionship runs its course heedless of its human performers, who
afterwards do not know what happened to them.

32 Whereas the cloud of "animosity" surrounding the man is
composed chiefly of sentimentality and resentment, in woman it
expresses itself in the form of opinionated views, interpreta-
tions, insinuations, and misconstructions, which all have the
purpose (sometimes attained) of severing the relation between
two human beings. The woman, like the man, becomes wrapped
in a veil of illusions by her demon-familiar, and, as the daughter
who alone understands her father (that is, is eternally right in
everything), she is translated to the land of sheep, where she is
put to graze by the shepherd of her soul, the animus.

33 Like the anima, the animus too has a positive aspect.
Through the figure of the father he expresses not only conven-
tional opinion but— equally— what we call "spirit," philosophical
or religious ideas in particular, or rather the attitude resulting
from them. Thus the animus is a psychopomp, a mediator be-
tween the conscious and the unconscious and a personification
of the latter. Just as the anima becomes, through integration,
the Eros of consciousness, so the animus becomes a Logos; and
in the same way that the anima gives relationship and related-
ness to a man's consciousness, the animus gives to woman's
consciousness a capacity for reflection, deliberation, and self-
knowledge.

34 The effect of anima and animus on the ego is in principle
the same. This effect is extremely difficult to eliminate because,
in the first place, it is uncommonly strong and immediately fills
the ego-personality with an unshakable feeling of Tightness and
righteousness. In the second place, the cause of the effect is pro-
jected and appears to lie in objects and objective situations.
Both these characteristics can, I believe, be traced back to the
peculiarities of the archetype. For the archetype, of course, exists

the syzygy: anima and animus

a priori. This may possibly explain the often totally irrational
yet undisputed and indisputable existence of certain moods and
opinions. Perhaps these are so notoriously difficult to influence
because of the powerfully suggestive effect emanating from the
archetype. Consciousness is fascinated by it, held captive, as if
hypnotized. Very often the ego experiences a vague feeling of
moral defeat and then behaves all the more defensively, de-
fiantly, and self-righteously, thus setting up a vicious circle
which only increases its feeling of inferiority. The bottom is
then knocked out of the human relationship, for, like megalo-
mania, a feeling of inferiority makes mutual recognition im-
possible, and without this there is no relationship.
35 As I said, it is easier to gain insight into the shadow than
into the anima or animus. With the shadow, we have the advan-
tage of being prepared in some sort by our education, which
has always endeavoured to convince people that they are not
one-hundred-per-cent pure gold. So everyone immediately un-
derstands what is meant by "shadow," "inferior personality,"
etc. And if he has forgotten, his memory can easily be refreshed
by a Sunday sermon, his wife, or the tax collector. With the
anima and animus, however, things are by no means so simple.
Firstly, there is no moral education in this respect, and secondly,
most people are content to be self-righteous and prefer mutual
vilification (if nothing worse!) to the recognition of their pro-
jections. Indeed, it seems a very natural state of affairs for men
to have irrational moods and women irrational opinions. Pre-
sumably this situation is grounded on instinct and must remain
as it is to ensure that the Empedoclean game of the hate and
love of the elements shall continue for all eternity. Nature is
conservative and does not easily allow her courses to be altered;
she defends in the most stubborn way the inviolability of the
preserves where anima and animus roam. Hence it is much more
difficult to become conscious of one's anima/animus projections
than to acknowledge one's shadow side. One has, of course, to
overcome certain moral obstacles, such as vanity, ambition, con-
ceit, resentment, etc., but in the case of projections all sorts of
purely intellectual difficulties are added, quite apart from the
contents of the projection which one simply doesn't know how
to cope with. And on top of all this there arises a profound
doubt as to whether one is not meddling too much with nature's

AION

business by prodding into consciousness things which it would
have been better to leave asleep.

36 Although there are, in my experience, a fair number of peo-
ple who can understand without special intellectual or moral
difficulties what is meant by anima and animus, one finds very
many more who have the greatest trouble in visualizing these
empirical concepts as anything concrete. This shows that they
fall a little outside the usual range of experience. They are
unpopular precisely because they seem unfamiliar. The conse-
quence is that they mobilize prejudice and become taboo like
everything else that is unexpected.

37 So if we set it up as a kind of requirement that projections
should be dissolved, because it is wholesomer that way and in
every respect more advantageous, we are entering upon new
ground. Up till now everybody has been convinced that the idea
"my father," "my mother," etc., is nothing but a faithful reflec-
tion of the real parent, corresponding in every detail to the
original, so that when someone says "my father" he means no
more and no less than what his father is in reality. This is actu-
ally what he supposes he does mean, but a supposition of iden-
tity by no means brings that identity about. This is where the
fallacy of the enkekalymmenos ('the veiled one') comes in.4 If
one includes in the psychological equation X's picture of his
father, which he takes for the real father, the equation will not
work out, because the unknown quantity he has introduced does
not tally with reality. X has overlooked the fact that his idea of
a person consists, in the first place, of the possibly very incom-
plete picture he has received of the real person and, in the sec-
ond place, of the subjective modifications he has imposed upon
this picture. X's idea of his father is a complex quantity for
which the real father is only in part responsible, an indefinitely
larger share falling to the son. So true is this that every time he
criticizes or praises his father he is unconsciously hitting back
at himself, thereby bringing about those psychic consequences
that overtake people who habitually disparage or overpraise
themselves. If, however, X carefully compares his reactions with
reality, he stands a chance of noticing that he has miscalculated

* The fallacy, which stems from Eubulides the Megarian, runs: "Can you recog-
nize your father?" Yes. "Can you recognize this veiled one?" No. "This veiled one
is your father. Hence you can recognize your father and not recognize him."

the syzygy: anima and animus

somewhere by not realizing long ago from his father's behaviour
that the picture he has of him is a false one. But as a rule X is
convinced that he is right, and if anybody is wrong it must be
the other fellow. Should X have a poorly developed Eros, he
will be either indifferent to the inadequate relationship he has
with his father or else annoyed by the inconsistency and general
incomprehensibility of a father whose behaviour never really
corresponds to the picture X has of him. Therefore X thinks he
has every right to feel hurt, misunderstood, and even betrayed.

38 One can imagine how desirable it would be in such cases to
dissolve the projection. And there are always optimists who be-
lieve that the golden age can be ushered in simply by telling peo-
ple the right way to go. But just let them try to explain to these
people that they are acting like a dog chasing its own tail. To
make a person see the shortcomings of his attitude considerably
more than mere "telling" is needed, for more is involved than
ordinary common sense can allow. What one is up against here
is the kind of fateful misunderstanding which, under ordinary
conditions, remains forever inaccessible to insight. It is rather
like expecting the average respectable citizen to recognize him-
self as a criminal.

39 I mention all this just to illustrate the order of magnitude
to which the anima/animus projections belong, and the moral
and intellectual exertions that are needed to dissolve them. Not
all the contents of the anima and animus are projected, how-
ever. Many of them appear spontaneously in dreams and so on,
and many more can be made conscious through active imagina-
tion. In this way we find that thoughts, feelings, and affects are
alive in us which we would never have believed possible. Nat-
urally, possibilities of this sort seem utterly fantastic to any-
one who has not experienced them himself, for a normal per-
son "knows what he thinks." Such a childish attitude on the
part of the "normal person" is simply the rule, so that no one
without experience in this field can be expected to understand
the real nature of anima and animus. With these reflections one
gets into an entirely new world of psychological experience,
provided of course that one succeeds in realizing it in prac-
tice. Those who do succeed can hardly fail to be impressed by
all that the ego does not know and never has known. This in-
crease in self-knowledge is still very rare nowadays and is usually

AION

paid for in advance with a neurosis, if not with something worse.
4° The autonomy of the collective unconscious expresses itself
in the figures of anima and animus. They personify those of its
contents which, when withdrawn from projection, can be in-
tegrated into consciousness. To this extent, both figures repre-
sent functions which filter the contents of the collective uncon-
scious through to the conscious mind. They appear or behave
as such, however, only so long as the tendencies of the conscious
and unconscious do not diverge too greatly. Should any tension
arise, these functions, harmless till then, confront the conscious
mind in personified form and behave rather like systems split
off from the personality, or like part souls. This comparison is
inadequate in so far as nothing previously belonging to the ego-
personality has split off from it; on the contrary, the two figures
represent a disturbing accretion. The reason for their behaving
in this way is that though the contents of anima and animus can
be integrated they themselves cannot, since they are archetypes.
As such they are the foundation stones of the psychic structure,
which in its totality exceeds the limits of consciousness and
therefore can never become the object of direct cognition.
Though the effects of anima and animus can be made conscious,
they themselves are factors transcending consciousness and be-
yond the reach of perception and volition. Hence they remain
autonomous despite the integration of their contents, and for
this reason they should be borne constantly in mind. This is
extremely important from the therapeutic standpoint, because
constant observation pays the unconscious a tribute that more
or less guarantees its co-operation. The unconscious as we know
can never be "done with" once and for all. It is, in fact, one of
the most important tasks of psychic hygiene to pay continual
attention to the symptomatology of unconscious contents and
processes, for the good reason that the conscious mind is always
in danger of becoming one-sided, of keeping to well-worn paths
and getting stuck in blind alleys. The complementary and com-
pensating function of the unconscious ensures that these dan-
gers, which are especially great in neurosis, can in some measure
be avoided. It is only under ideal conditions, when life is still
simple and unconscious enough to follow the serpentine path of
instinct without hesitation or misgiving, that the compensation
works with entire success. The more civilized, the more uncon-

the syzygy: anima and animus

scious and complicated a man is, the less he is able to follow his
instincts. His complicated living conditions and the influence
of his environment are so strong that they drown the quiet voice
of nature. Opinions, beliefs, theories, and collective tendencies
appear in its stead and back up all the aberrations of the con-
scious mind. Deliberate attention should then be given to the
unconscious so that the compensation can set to work. Hence it
is especially important to picture the archetypes of the uncon-
scious not as a rushing phantasmagoria of fugitive images but as
constant, autonomous factors, which indeed they are.

Both these archetypes, as practical experience shows, possess
a fatality that can on occasion produce tragic results. They are
quite literally the father and mother of all the disastrous entan-
glements of fate and have long been recognized as such by the
whole world. Together they form a divine pair,5 one of whom,
in accordance with his Logos nature, is characterized by pneuma
and nous, rather like Hermes with his ever-shifting hues, while
the other, in accordance with her Eros nature, wears the features
of Aphrodite, Helen (Selene), Persephone, and Hecate. Both of
them are unconscious powers, "gods" in fact, as the ancient
world quite rightly conceived them to be. To call them by this
name is to give them that central position in the scale of
psychological values which has always been theirs whether con-
sciously acknowledged or not; for their power grows in propor-
tion to the degree that they remain unconscious. Those who do
not see them are in their hands, just as a typhus epidemic flour-
ishes best when its source is undiscovered. Even in Christianity
the divine syzygy has not become obsolete, but occupies the
highest place as Christ and his bride the Church.6 Parallels like
these prove extremely helpful in our attempts to find the right

5 Naturally this is not meant as a psychological definition, let alone a metaphysi-
cal one. As I pointed out in "The Relations between the Ego and the Uncon-
scious" (pars. 296!!.), the syzygy consists of three elements: the femininity pertain-
ing to the man and the masculinity pertaining to the woman; the experience
which man has of woman and vice versa; and, finally, the masculine and femi-
nine archetypal image. The first element can be integrated into the personality
by the process of conscious realization, but the last one cannot.

6 "For the Scripture says, God made man male and female; the male is Christ,
the female is the Church." — Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, xiv, 2
(trans, by Lake, I, p. 151). In pictorial representations, Mary often takes the place
of the Church.

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criterion for gauging the significance of these two archetypes.
What we can discover about them from the conscious side is so
slight as to be almost imperceptible. It is only when we throw
light into the dark depths of the psyche and explore the strange
and tortuous paths of human fate that it gradually becomes clear
to us how immense is the influence wielded by these two factors
that complement our conscious life.
42 Recapitulating, I should like to emphasize that the integra-
tion of the shadow, or the realization of the personal uncon-
scious, marks the first stage in the analytic process, and that with-
out it a recognition of anima and animus is impossible. The
shadow can be realized only through a relation to a partner, and
anima and animus only through a relation to a partner of the
opposite sex, because only in such a relation do their projec-
tions become operative. The recognition of the anima gives rise,
in a man, to a triad, one third of which is transcendent: the
masculine subject, the opposing feminine subject, and the tran-
scendent anima. With a woman the situation is reversed. The
missing fourth element that would make the triad a quaternity
is, in a man, the archetype of the Wise Old Man, which I have
not discussed here, and in a woman the Chthonic Mother.
These four constitute a half immanent and half transcendent
quaternity, an archetype which I have called the marriage
quaternio.7 The marriage quaternio provides a schema not
only for the self but also for the structure of primitive society
with its cross-cousin marriage, marriage classes, and division of
settlements into quarters. The self, on the other hand, is a God-
image, or at least cannot be distinguished from one. Of this the
early Christian spirit was not ignorant, otherwise Clement of
Alexandria could never have said that he who knows himself
knows God.8

7 "The Psychology of the Transference," pars. 425ff. Cf. infra, pars. 3583., the
Naassene quaternio.

8 Cf. infra, par. 347.

THE SELF1

43 We shall now turn to the question of whether the increase
in self-knowledge resulting from the withdrawal of impersonal
projections— in other words, the integration of the contents of
the collective unconscious— exerts a specific influence on the ego-
personality. To the extent that the integrated contents are parts
of the self, we can expect this influence to be considerable.
Their assimilation augments not only the area of the field of
consciousness but also the importance of the ego, especially
when, as usually happens, the ego lacks any critical approach to
the unconscious. In that case it is easily overpowered and be-
comes identical with the contents that have been assimilated.
In this way, for instance, a masculine consciousness comes under
the influence of the anima and can even be possessed by her.

44 I have discussed the wider effects of the integration of un-
conscious contents elsewhere 2 and can therefore omit going into
details here. I should only like to mention that the more numer-
ous and the more significant the unconscious contents which are
assimilated to the ego, the closer the approximation of the ego
to the self, even though this approximation must be a never-
ending process. This inevitably produces an inflation of the ego,3
unless a critical line of demarcation is drawn between it and the
unconscious figures. But this act of discrimination yields prac-
tical results only if it succeeds in fixing reasonable boundaries
to the ego and in granting the figures of the unconscious— the
self, anima, animus, and shadow— relative autonomy and reality

1 The material for this chapter is drawn from a paper, "t)ber das Selbst," pub-
lished in the Eranos-Jahrbuch 1948.

2 "The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious."

3 In the sense of the words used in I Cor. 5 : 2: "Infiati estis [ire^vatdjfjievoi] et non
magis luctum habuistis" (And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned)—
with reference to a case of tolerated incest with the mother ("that a man should
have his father's wife").

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(of a psychic nature). To psychologize this reality out of exist-
ence either is ineffectual, or else merely increases the inflation
of the ego. One cannot dispose of facts by declaring them unreal.
The projection-making factor, for instance, has undeniable
reality. Anyone who insists on denying it becomes identical with
it, which is not only dubious in itself but a positive danger to the
well-being of the individual. Everyone who has dealings with
such cases knows how perilous an inflation can be. No more than
a flight of steps or a smooth floor is needed to precipitate a fatal
fall. Besides the "pride goeth before a fall" motif there are other
factors of a no less disagreeable psychosomatic and psychic
nature which serve to reduce "puffed-up-ness." This condition
should not be interpreted as one of conscious self-aggrandize-
ment. Such is far from being the rule. In general we are not
directly conscious of this condition at all, but can at best infer
its existence indirectly from the symptoms. These include the re-
actions of our immediate environment. Inflation magnifies the
blind spot in the eye, and the more we are assimilated by the
projection-making factor, the greater becomes the tendency to
identify with it. A clear symptom of this is our growing disin-
clination to take note of the reactions of the environment and
pay heed to them.

45 It must be reckoned a psychic catastrophe when the ego is
assimilated by the self. The image of wholeness then remains
in the unconscious, so that on the one hand it shares the archaic
nature of the unconscious and on the other finds itself in the
psychically relative space-time continuum that is characteristic
of the unconscious as such.4 Both these qualities are numinous
and hence have an unlimited determining effect on ego-con-
sciousness, which is differentiated, i.e., separated, from the un-
conscious and moreover exists in an absolute space and an
absolute time. It is a vital necessity that this should be so. If,
therefore, the ego falls for any length of time under the control
of an unconscious factor, its adaptation is disturbed and the way
opened for all sorts of possible accidents.

46 Hence it is of the greatest importance that the ego should
be anchored in the world of consciousness and that conscious-
ness should be reinforced by a very precise adaptation. For this,
certain virtues like attention, conscientiousness, patience, etc.,
4 Cf. "On the Nature of the Psyche," pars. 414s., 439,ff.

THE SELF

are of great value on the moral side, just as accurate observation
of the symptomatology of the unconscious and objective self-
criticism are valuable on the intellectual side.

47 However, accentuation of the ego personality and the world
of consciousness may easily assume such proportions that the
figures of the unconscious are psychologized and the self conse-
quently becomes assimilated to the ego. Although this is the
exact opposite of the process we have just described it is fol-
lowed by the same result: inflation. The world of consciousness
must now be levelled down in favour of the reality of the un-
conscious. In the first case, reality had to be protected against an
archaic, "eternal" and "ubiquitous" dream-state; in the second,
room must be made for the dream at the expense of the world of
consciousness. In the first case, mobilization of all the virtues is
indicated; in the second, the presumption of the ego can only
be damped down by moral defeat. This is necessary, because
otherwise one will never attain that median degree of modesty
which is essential for the maintenance of a balanced state. It is
not a question, as one might think, of relaxing morality itself
but of making a moral effort in a different direction. For in-
stance, a man who is not conscientious enough has to make a
moral effort in order to come up to the mark; while for one who
is sufficiently rooted in the world through his own efforts it is no
small moral achievement to inflict defeat on his virtues by
loosening his ties with the world and reducing his adaptive per-
formance. (One thinks in this connection of Brother Klaus, now
canonized, who for the salvation of his soul left his wife to her
own devices, along with numerous progeny.)

48 Since real moral problems all begin where the penal code
leaves off, their solution can seldom or never depend on prece-
dent, much less on precepts and commandments. The real moral
problems spring from conflicts of duty. Anyone who is suf-
ficiently humble, or easy-going, can always reach a decision with
the help of some outside authority. But one who trusts others as
little as himself can never reach a decision at all, unless it is
brought about in the manner which Common Law calls an "Act
of God." The Oxford Dictionary defines this concept as the
"action of uncontrollable natural forces." In all such cases there
is an unconscious authority which puts an end to doubt by
creating a fait accompli. (In the last analysis this is true also of

AION

those who get their decision from a higher authority, only in
more veiled form.) One can describe this authority either as the
"will of God" or as an "action of uncontrollable natural forces,"
though psychologically it makes a good deal of difference how
one thinks of it. The rationalistic interpretation of this inner
authority as "natural forces" or the instincts satisfies the modern
intellect but has the great disadvantage that the apparent vic-
tory of instinct offends our moral self-esteem; hence we like to
persuade ourselves that the matter has been decided solely by
the rational motions of the will. Civilized man has such a fear
of the "crimen laesae maiestatis humanae" that whenever pos-
sible he indulges in a retrospective coloration of the facts in
order to cover up the feeling of having suffered a moral defeat.
He prides himself on what he believes to be his self-control and
the omnipotence of his will, and despises the man who lets him-
self be outwitted by mere nature.
49 If, on the other hand, the inner authority is conceived as
the "will of God" (which implies that "natural forces" are divine
forces), our self-esteem is benefited because the decision then
appears to be an act of obedience and the result a divine inten-
tion. This way of looking at it can, with some show of justice,
be accused not only of being very convenient but of cloaking
moral laxity in the mantle of virtue. The accusation, however,
is justified only when one is in fact knowingly hiding one's own
egoistic opinion behind a hypocritical facade of words. But this
is by no means the rule, for in most cases instinctive tendencies
assert themselves for or against one's subjective interests no
matter whether an outside authority approves or not. The inner
authority does not need to be consulted first, as it is present at
the outset in the intensity of the tendencies struggling for deci-
sion. In this struggle the individual is never a spectator only;
he takes part in it more or less "voluntarily" and tries to throw
the weight of his feeling of moral freedom into the scales of
decision. Nevertheless, it remains a matter of doubt how much
his seemingly free decision has a causal, and possibly uncon-
scious, motivation. This may be quite as much an "act of God"
as any natural cataclysm. The problem seems to me unanswer-
able, because we do not know where the roots of the feeling of
moral freedom lie; and yet they exist no less surely than the
instincts, which are felt as compelling forces.

THE SELF

50 All in all, it is not only more beneficial but more "cor-
rect" psychologically to explain as the "will of God" the natural
forces that appear in us as instincts. In this way we find our-
selves living in harmony with the habitus of our ancestral psy-
chic life; that is, we function as man has functioned at all times
and in all places. The existence of this habitus is proof of its via-
bility, for, if it were not viable, all those who obeyed it would
long since have perished of maladaptation. On the other hand,
by conforming to it one has a reasonable life expectancy. When
an habitual way of thinking guarantees as much as this there is
not only no ground for declaring it incorrect but, on the con-
trary, every reason to take it as "true" or "correct" in the psy-
chological sense. Psychological truths are not metaphysical
insights; they are habitual modes of thinking, feeling, and be-
having which experience has proved appropriate and useful.

51 So when I say that the impulses which we find in ourselves
should be understood as the "will of God," I wish to emphasize
that they ought not to be regarded as an arbitrary wishing and
willing, but as absolutes which one must learn how to handle
correctly. The will can control them only in part. It may be able
to suppress them, but it cannot alter their nature, and what is
suppressed comes up again in another place in altered form, but
this time loaded with a resentment that makes the otherwise
harmless natural impulse our enemy. I should also like the term
"God" in the phrase "the will of God" to be understood not so
much in the Christian sense as in the sense intended by Diotima,
when she said: "Eros, dear Socrates, is a mighty daemon." The
Greek words daimon and daimonion express a determining
power which comes upon man from outside, like providence or
fate, though the ethical decision is left to man. He must know,
however, what he is deciding about and what he is doing. Then,
if he obeys he is following not just his own opinion, and if he
rejects he is destroying not just his own invention.

52 The purely biological or scientific standpoint falls short in
psychology because it is, in the main, intellectual only. That
this should be so is not a disadvantage, since the methods of
natural science have proved of great heuristic value in psycho-
logical research. But the psychic phenomenon cannot be grasped
in its totality by the intellect, for it consists not only of mean-
ing but also of value, and this depends on the intensity of the

AION

accompanying feeling-tones. Hence at least the two "rational"
functions B are needed in order to map out anything like a com-
plete diagram of a given psychic content.
53 If, therefore, in dealing with psychic contents one makes
allowance not only for intellectual judgments but for value
judgments as well, not only is the result a more complete picture
of the content in question, but one also gets a better idea of the
particular position it holds in the hierarchy of psychic contents
in general. The feeling-value is a very important criterion which
psychology cannot do without, because it determines in large
measure the role which the content will play in the psychic
economy. That is to say, the affective value gives the measure of
the intensity of an idea, and the intensity in its turn expresses
that idea's energic tension, its effective potential. The shadow,
for instance, usually has a decidedly negative feeling- value,
while the anima, like the animus, has more of a positive one.
Whereas the shadow is accompanied by more or less definite
and describable feeling-tones, the anima and animus exhibit
feeling qualities that are harder to define. Mostly they are felt
to be fascinating or numinous. Often they are surrounded by an
atmosphere of sensitivity, touchy reserve, secretiveness, painful
intimacy, and even absoluteness. The relative autonomy of the
anima- and animus-figures expresses itself in these qualities. In
order of affective rank they stand to the shadow very much as
the shadow stands in relation to ego-consciousness. The main
affective emphasis seems to lie on the latter; at any rate it is
able, by means of a considerable expenditure of energy, to
repress the shadow, at least temporarily. But if for any reason
the unconscious gains the upper hand, then the valency of the
shadow and of the other figures increases proportionately, so
that the scale of values is reversed. What lay furthest away from
waking consciousness and seemed unconscious assumes, as it
were, a threatening shape, and the affective value increases the
higher up the scale you go: ego-consciousness, shadow, anima,
self. This reversal of the conscious waking state occurs regularly
during the transition from waking to sleeping, and what then
emerge most vividly are the very things that were unconscious
by day. Every abaissement du niveau mental brings about a
relative reversal of values.

5 Cf. Psychological Types, Deis., "Rational" and "Irrational.

THE SELF

54 I am speaking here of the subjective feeling- value, which is
subject to the more or less periodic changes described above.
But there are also objective values which are founded on a con-
sensus omnium— moral, aesthetic, and religious values, for
instance, and these are universally recognized ideals or feeling-
toned collective ideas (Levy-Bruhl's "representations collec-
tives").6 The subjective feeling-tones or "value quanta" are
easily recognized by the kind and number of constellations, or
symptoms of disturbance,7 they produce. Collective ideals often
have no subjective feeling-tone, but nevertheless retain their
feeling-value. This value, therefore, cannot be demonstrated
by subjective symptoms, though it may be by the attributes
attaching to these collective ideas and by their characteristic
symbolism, quite apart from their suggestive effect.

55 The problem has a practical aspect, since it may easily hap-
pen that a collective idea, though significant in itself, is— be-
cause of its lack of subjective feeling- tone— represented in a
dream only by a subsidiary attribute, as when a god is repre-
sented by his theriomorphic attribute, etc. Conversely, the idea
may appear in consciousness lacking the affective emphasis that
properly belongs to it, and must then be transposed back into
its archetypal context— a task that is usually discharged by poets
and prophets. Thus Holderlin, in his "Hymn to Liberty," lets
this concept, worn stale by frequent use and misuse, rise up
again in its pristine splendour:

Since her arm out of the dust has raised me,
Beats my heart so boldly and serene;
And my cheek still tingles with her kisses,
Flushed and glowing where her lips have been.
Every word she utters, by her magic
Rises new-created, without flaw;
Hearken to the tidings of my goddess,
Hearken to the Sovereign, and adore! 8

56 It is not difficult to see here that the idea of liberty has been
changed back to its original dramatic state— into the shining

6 Les Fonctions mentales dans les societis inferieures.
1 "On Psychic Energy," pars. 14ft., 2off.
ZSamtliche Werke, I, p. 126.

AION

figure of the anima, freed from the weight of the earth and the
tyranny of the senses, the psychopomp who leads the way to the
Elysian fields.

57 The first case we mentioned, where the collective idea is
represented in a dream by a lowly aspect of itself, is certainly the
more frequent: the "goddess" appears as a black cat, and the
Deity as the lapis exilis (stone of no worth). Interpretation then
demands a knowledge of certain things which have less to do
with zoology and mineralogy than with the existence of an his-
torical consensus omnium in regard to the object in question.
These "mythological" aspects are always present, even though
in a given case they may be unconscious. If for instance one
doesn't happen to recall, when considering whether to paint the
garden gate green or white, that green is the colour of life and
hope, the symbolic aspect of "green" is nevertheless present as
an unconscious sous-entendu. So we find something which has
the highest significance for the life of the unconscious standing
lowest on the scale of conscious values, and vice versa. The fig-
ure of the shadow already belongs to the realm of bodiless phan-
toms—not to speak of anima and animus, which do not seem to
appear at all except as projections upon our fellow human be-
ings. As for the self, it is completely outside the personal sphere,
and appears, if at all, only as a religious mythologem, and its
symbols range from the highest to the lowest. Anyone who iden-
tifies with the daylight half of his psychic life will therefore
declare the dreams of the night to be null and void, notwith-
standing that the night is as long as the day and that all con-
sciousness is manifestly founded on unconsciousness, is rooted
in it and every night is extinguished in it. What is more, psycho-
pathology knows with tolerable certainty what the unconscious
can do to the conscious, and for this reason devotes to the un-
conscious an attention that often seems incomprehensible to the
layman. We know, for instance, that what is small by day is big
at night, and the other way round; thus we also know that
besides the small by day there always looms the big by night,
even when it is invisible.

58 This knowledge is an essential prerequisite for any integra-
tion—that is to say a content can only be integrated when its
double aspect has become conscious and when it is grasped not
merely intellectually but understood according to its feeling-

THE SELF

value. Intellect and feeling, however, are difficult to put into
one harness— they conflict with one another by definition. Who-
ever identifies with an intellectual standpoint will occasionally
find his feeling confronting him like an enemy in the guise of
the anima; conversely, an intellectual animus will make violent
attacks on the feeling standpoint. Therefore, anyone who wants
to achieve the difficult feat of realizing something not only intel-
lectually, but also according to its feeling-value, must for better
or worse come to grips with the anima /animus problem in order
to open the way for a higher union, a coniunctio oppositorum.
This is an indispensable prerequisite for wholeness.
59 Although "wholeness" seems at first sight to be nothing but
an abstract idea (like anima and animus), it is nevertheless em-
pirical in so far as it is anticipated by the psyche in the form of
spontaneous or autonomous symbols. These are the quaternity
or mandala symbols, which occur not only in the dreams of
modern people who have never heard of them, but are widely
disseminated in the historical records of many peoples and many
epochs. Their significance as symbols of unity and totality is
amply confirmed by history as well as by empirical psychology.
What at first looks like an abstract idea stands in reality for
something that exists and can be experienced, that demonstrates
its a priori presence spontaneously. Wholeness is thus an objec-
tive factor that confronts the subject independently of him, like
anima or animus; and just as the latter have a higher position in
the hierarchy than the shadow, so wholeness lays claim to a posi-
tion and a value superior to those of the syzygy. The syzygy
seems to represent at least a substantial portion of it, if not ac-
tually two halves of the totality formed by the royal brother-
sister pair, and hence the tension of opposites from which the
divine child 9 is born as the symbol of unity.

Unity and totality stand at the highest point on the scale of
objective values because their symbols can no longer be distin-
guished from the imago Dei. Hence all statements about the
God-image apply also to the empirical symbols of totality. Expe-
rience shows that individual mandalas are symbols of order, and
that they occur in patients principally during times of psychic

»C£. my "Psychology of the Child Archetype"; also Psychology and Alchemy,
index, s.v. "Alius Philosophorum," "child," "hermaphrodite."

AION

disorientation or re-orientation. As magic circles they bind and
subdue the lawless powers belonging to the world of darkness,
and depict or create an order that transforms the chaos into a
cosmos.10 The mandala at first comes into the conscious mind as
an unimpressive point or dot,11 and a great deal of hard and
painstaking work as well as the integration of many projections
are generally required before the full range of the symbol can
be anything like completely understood. If this insight were
purely intellectual it could be achieved without much difficulty,
for the world-wide pronouncements about the God within us
and above us, about Christ and the corpus mysticum, the per-
sonal and suprapersonal atman, etc., are all formulations that
can easily be mastered by the philosophic intellect. This is the
common source of the illusion that one is then in possession of
the thing itself. But actually one has acquired nothing more
than its name, despite the age-old prejudice that the name mag-
ically represents the thing, and that it is sufficient to pronounce
the name in order to posit the thing's existence. In the course
of the millennia the reasoning mind has been given every oppor-
tunity to see through the futility of this conceit, though that has
done nothing to prevent the intellectual mastery of a thing from
being accepted at its face value. It is precisely our experiences
in psychology which demonstrate as plainly as could be wished
that the intellectual "grasp" of a psychological fact produces no
more than a concept of it, and that a concept is no more than a
name, a flatus vocis. These intellectual counters can be bandied
about easily enough. They pass lightly from hand to hand, for
they have no weight or substance. They sound full but are hol-
low; and though purporting to designate a heavy task and obli-
gation, they commit us to nothing. The intellect is undeniably
useful in its own field, but is a great cheat and illusionist outside
of it whenever it tries to manipulate values.
61 It would seem that one can pursue any science with the intel-
lect alone except psychology, whose subject— the psyche— has
more than the two aspects mediated by sense-perception and
thinking. The function of value— feeling— is an integral part of
our conscious orientation and ought not to be missing in a psy-
chological judgment of any scope, otherwise the model we are
trying to build of the real process will be incomplete. Every

10 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, Part II, ch. 3. 11 [Cf. infra, par. 340.]

THE SELF

psychic process has a value quality attached to it, namely its
feeling-tone. This indicates the degree to which the subject is
affected by the process or how much it means to him (in so far
as the process reaches consciousness at all). It is through the
"affect" that the subject becomes involved and so comes to feel
the whole weight of reality. The difference amounts roughly to
that between a severe illness which one reads about in a text-
book and the real illness which one has. In psychology one pos-
sesses nothing unless one has experienced it in reality. Hence a
purely intellectual insight is not enough, because one knows
only the words and not the substance of the thing from inside.

62 There are far more people who are afraid of the unconscious
than one would expect. They are even afraid of their own
shadow. And when it comes to the anima and animus, this fear
turns to panic. For the syzygy does indeed represent the psychic
contents that irrupt into consciousness in a psychosis (most
clearly of all in the paranoid forms of schizophrenia).12 The
overcoming of this fear is often a moral achievement of un-
usual magnitude, and yet it is not the only condition that must
be fulfilled on the way to a real experience of the self.

63 The shadow, the syzygy, and the self are psychic factors of
which an adequate picture can be formed only on the basis of
a fairly thorough experience of them. Just as these concepts
arose out of an experience of reality, so they can be elucidated
only by further experience. Philosophical criticism will find
everything to object to in them unless it begins by recognizing
that they are concerned with facts, and that the "concept" is
simply an abbreviated description or definition of these facts.
Such criticism has as little effect on the object as zoological criti-
cism on a duck-billed platypus. It is not the concept that mat-
ters; the concept is only a word, a counter, and it has meaning
and use only because it stands for a certain sum of experience.
Unfortunately I cannot pass on this experience to my public.
I have tried in a number of publications, with the help of case
material, to present the nature of these experiences and also the
method of obtaining them. Wherever my methods were really
applied the facts I give have been confirmed. One could see the

12 A classic case is the one published by Nelken: "Analytische Beobachtungen
uber Phantasien eines Schizophrenen." Another is Schreber's Memoirs of My
Nervous Illness.

AION

moons of Jupiter even in Galileo's day if one took the trouble
to use his telescope.

64 Outside the narrower field of professional psychology these
figures meet with understanding from all who have any knowl-
edge of comparative mythology. They have no difficulty in rec-
ognizing the shadow as the adverse representative of the dark
chthonic world, a figure whose characteristics are universal. The
syzygy is immediately comprehensible as the psychic prototype
of all divine couples. Finally the self, on account of its empirical
peculiarities, proves to be the eidos behind the supreme ideas
of unity and totality that are inherent in all monotheistic and
monistic systems.

65 I regard these parallels as important because it is possible,
through them, to relate so-called metaphysical concepts, which
have lost their root connection with natural experience, to liv-
ing, universal psychic processes, so that they can recover their
true and original meaning. In this way the connection is re-
established between the ego and projected contents now formu-
lated as "metaphysical" ideas. Unfortunately, as already said,
the fact that metaphysical ideas exist and are believed in does
nothing to prove the actual existence of their content or of the
object they refer to, although the coincidence of idea and reality
in the form of a special psychic state, a state of grace, should not
be deemed impossible, even if the subject cannot bring it about
by an act of will. Once metaphysical ideas have lost their capac-
ity to recall and evoke the original experience they have not
only become useless but prove to be actual impediments on the
road to wider development. One clings to possessions that have
once meant wealth; and the more ineffective, incomprehensible,
and lifeless they become the more obstinately people cling to
them. (Naturally it is only sterile ideas that they cling to; living
ideas have content and riches enough, so there is no need to
cling to them.) Thus in the course of time the meaningful turns
into the meaningless. This is unfortunately the fate of meta-
physical ideas.

66 Today it is a real problem what on earth such ideas can
mean. The world— so far as it has not completely turned its back
on tradition— has long ago stopped wanting to hear a "message";
it would rather be told what the message means. The words that
resound from the pulpit are incomprehensible and cry for an

THE SELF

explanation. How has the death of Christ brought us redemp-
tion when no one feels redeemed? In what way is Jesus a God-
man and what is such a being? What is the Trinity about, and
the parthenogenesis, the eating of the body and the drinking of
the blood, and all the rest of it? What connection can there be
between the world of such concepts and the everyday world,
whose material reality is the concern of natural science on the
widest possible scale? At least sixteen hours out of twenty-four
we live exclusively in this everyday world, and the remaining
eight we spend preferably in an unconscious condition. Where
and when does anything take place to remind us even remotely
of phenomena like angels, miraculous feedings, beatitudes,
the resurrection of the dead, etc.? It was therefore something of
a discovery to find that during the unconscious state of sleep
intervals occur, called "dreams," which occasionally contain
scenes having a not inconsiderable resemblance to the motifs of
mythology. For myths are miracle tales and treat of all those
things which, very often, are also objects of belief.
67 In the everyday world of consciousness such things hardly
exist; that is to say, until 1933 only lunatics would have been
found in possession of living fragments of mythology. After this
date the world of heroes and monsters spread like a devastating
fire over whole nations, proving that the strange world of myth
had suffered no loss of vitality during the centuries of reason
and enlightenment. If metaphysical ideas no longer have such a
fascinating effect as before, this is certainly not due to any lack
of primitivity in the European psyche, but simply and solely to
the fact that the erstwhile symbols no longer express what is
now welling up from the unconscious as the end-result of the
development of Christian consciousness through the centuries.
This end-result is a true antimimon pneuma, a false spirit of
arrogance, hysteria, woolly-mindedness, criminal amorality, and
doctrinaire fanaticism, a purveyor of shoddy spiritual goods,
spurious art, philosophical stutterings, and Utopian humbug,
fit only to be fed wholesale to the mass man of today. That is
what the post-Christian spirit looks like.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

68 The dechristianization of our world, the Luciferian develop-
ment of science and technology, and the frightful material and
moral destruction left behind by the second World War have
been compared more than once with the eschatological events
foretold in the New Testament. These, as we know, are con-
cerned with the coming of the Antichrist: "This is Antichrist,
who denieth the Father and the Son." x "Every spirit that dis-
solved! Jesus ... is Antichrist ... of whom you have heard
that he cometh." 2 The Apocalypse is full of expectations of ter-
rible things that will take place at the end of time, before the
marriage of the Lamb. This shows plainly that the anima Chris-
tiana has a sure knowledge not only of the existence of an
adversary but also of his future usurpation of power.

69 Why— my reader will ask— do I discourse here upon Christ
and his adversary, the Antichrist? Our discourse necessarily
brings us to Christ, because he is the still living myth of our
culture. He is our culture hero, who, regardless of his historical
existence, embodies the myth of the divine Primordial Man, the
mystic Adam. It is he who occupies the centre of the Christian
mandala, who is the Lord of the Tetramorph, i.e., the four sym-
bols of the evangelists, which are like the four columns of his
throne. He is in us and we in him. His kingdom is the pearl of
great price, the treasure buried in the field, the grain of mus-
tard seed which will become a great tree, and the heavenly

1 1 John 2 : 22 (DV).

2 I John 4 : 3 (DV). The traditional view of the Church is based on II Thessalo-
nians 2 : 3ff., which speaks of the apostasy, of the SivOpw-rros rijs avofxias (man of
lawlessness) and the vlbs rijs d7rw\et'as (son of perdition) who herald the coming of
the Lord. This "lawless one" will set himself up in the place of God, but will
finally be slain by the Lord Jesus "with the breath of his mouth." He will work
wonders /car' evepyeiav rod oarava. (according to the working of Satan). Above all,
he will reveal himself by his lying and deceitfulness. Daniel 1 1 : 36ft. is regarded
as a prototype.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

city.8 As Christ is in us, so also is his heavenly kingdom.4
7° These few, familiar references should be sufficient to make
the psychological position of the Christ symbol quite clear.
Christ exemplifies the archetype of the self.5 He represents a
totality of a divine or heavenly kind, a glorified man, a son of
God sine macula peccati, unspotted by sin. As Adam secundus
he corresponds to the first Adam before the Fall, when the latter
was still a pure image of God, of which Tertullian (d. 222) says:
"And this therefore is to be considered as the image of God in
man, that the human spirit has the same motions and senses as
God has, though not in the same way as God has them." 6 Origen
(185-254) is very much more explicit: The imago Dei imprinted
on the soul, not on the body,7 is an image of an image, "for my
soul is not directly the image of God, but is made after the like-
ness of the former image."8 Christ, on the other hand, is the

3 For "city" cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pp. 104s.

4 'H paaiXela rov 6eov ivrbs vfiwv toriv (The kingdom of God is within you [or
"among you"]). "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall
they say, Lo here! or, lo there!" for it is within and everywhere. (Luke 17 : 2of.)
"It is not of this [external] world." (John 18 : 36.) The likeness of the kingdom
of God to man is explicitly stated in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13 : 24,
Cf. also Matthew 13 : 45, 18 : 23, 22 : 2). The papyrus fragments from Oxyrhyn-
chus say: . . . if /3ao-[i\eta riav ovpavtav] ivrbs v/xcov [£]<TTt [xai forris Sip eavrbv]
yvu> ravTtjv evp'ij[cei\ eavrovs yvwaeade kt\. (The kingdom of heaven is within you,
and whosoever knoweth himself shall find it. Know yourselves.) Cf. James, The
Apocryphal New Testament, p. 26, and Grenfell and Hunt, New Sayings of
Jesus, p. 15.

5 Cf. my observations on Christ as archetype in "A Psychological Approach to the
Dogma of the Trinity," pars. 226ff.

6 "Et haec ergo imago censenda est Dei in homine, quod eosdem motus et sensus
habeat humanus animus, quos et Deus, licet non tales quales Deus" (Adv. Mar-
cion., II, xvi; in Migne, P.L., vol. 2, col. 304).

7 Contra Celsum, VIII, 49 (Migne, P.G., vol. 11, col. 1590): "In anima, non in
corpore impressus sit imaginis conditoris character" (The character of the image
of the Creator is imprinted on the soul, not on the body). (Cf. trans, by H. Chad-
wick, p. 488.)

8 In Lucam homilia, VIII (Migne, P.G., vol. 13, col. 1820): "Si considerem Domi-
num Salvatorem imaginem esse invisibilis Dei, et videam animam meam factam
ad imaginem conditoris, ut imago esset imaginis: neque enim anima mea spe-
cialiter imago est Dei, sed ad similitudinem imaginis prioris effecta est" (If I
consider that the Lord and Saviour is the image of the invisible God, I see that
my soul is made after the image of the Creator, so as to be an image of an image;
for my soul is not directly the image of God, but is made after the likeness of the
former image).

AION

true image of God,9 after whose likeness our inner man is made,
invisible, incorporeal, incorrupt, and immortal.10 The God-
image in us reveals itself through "prudentia, iustitia, modera-
tio, virtus, sapientia et disciplina." u
71 St. Augustine (354-430) distinguishes between the God-
image which is Christ and the image which is implanted in
man as a means or possibility of becoming like God.12 The God-
image is not in the corporeal man, but in the anima rationalis,
the possession of which distinguishes man from animals. "The
God-image is within, not in the body. . . . Where the under-
standing is, where the mind is, where the power of investigating
truth is, there God has his image." 13 Therefore we should re-
mind ourselves, says Augustine, that we are fashioned after the
image of God nowhere save in the understanding: ". . . but
where man knows himself to be made after the image of God,

9 De principiis, I, ii, 8 (Migne, P.G., vol. 11, col. 156): "Salvator figura est sub-
stantiae vel subsistentiae Dei" (The Saviour is the figure of the substance or sub-
sistence of God). In Genesim homilia, I, 13 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12, col. 156): "Quae
est ergo alia imago Dei ad cuius imaginis similitudinem factus est homo, nisi
Salvator noster, qui est primogenitus omnis creaturae?" (What else therefore is
the image of God after the likeness of which image man was made, but our
Saviour, who is the first born of every creature?) Selecta in Genesim, IX, 6
(Migne, P.G., vol. 12, col. 107): "Imago autem Dei invisibilis salvator" (But the
image of the invisible God is the saviour).

10 in Gen. horn., I, 13 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12, col. 155): "Is autem qui ad imaginem
Dei factus est et ad similitudinem, interior homo noster est, invisibilis et incor-
poralis, et incorruptus atque immortalis" (But that which is made after the image
and similitude of God is our inner man, invisible, incorporeal, incorrupt, and
immortal).

11 De princip., IV, 37 (Migne, P.G., vol. 11, col. 412).

12 Retractationes, I, xxvi (Migne, P.L., vol. 32, col. 626): "(Unigenitus) . . . tan-
tummodo imago est, non ad imaginem" (The Only-Begotten . . . alone is the
image, not after the image).

13 Enarrationes in Psalmos, XLVIII, Sermo II (Migne, P.L., vol. 36, col. 564):
"Imago Dei intus est, non est in corpore . . . ubi est intellectus, ubi est mens,
ubi ratio investigandae veritatis etc. ibi habet Deus imaginem suam." Also ibid.,
Psalm XLII, 6 (Migne, P.L., vol. 36, col. 480): "Ergo intelligimus habere nos
aliquid ubi imago Dei est, mentem scilicet atque rationem" (Therefore we under-
stand that we have something in which the image of God is, namely mind and
reason). Sermo XC, 10 (Migne, P.L., vol. 38, col. 566): "Veritas quaeritur in Dei
imagine" (Truth is sought in the image of God), but against this the Liber de
vera religione says: "in interiore homine habitat Veritas" (truth dwells in the
inner man). From this it is clear that the imago Dei coincides with the interior
homo.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

there he knows there is something more in him than is given to
the beasts." 14 From this it is clear that the God-image is, so to
speak, identical with the anima rationalis. The latter is the
higher spiritual man, the homo coelestis of St Paul.15 Like
Adam before the Fall, Christ is an embodiment of the God-
image,16 whose totality is specially emphasized by St. Augustine.
"The Word," he says, "took on complete manhood, as it were in
its fulness: the soul and body of a man. And if you would have
me put it more exactly— since even a beast of the field has a 'soul'
and a body— when I say a human soul and human flesh, I mean
he took upon him a complete human soul." 17
72 The God-image in man was not destroyed by the Fall but
was only damaged and corrupted ("deformed"), and can be
restored through God's grace. The scope of the integration is
suggested by the descensus ad inferos, the descent of Christ's
soul to hell, its work of redemption embracing even the dead.
The psychological equivalent of this is the integration of the
collective unconscious which forms an essential part of the indi-
viduation process. St. Augustine says: "Therefore our end must
be our perfection, but our perfection is Christ," 18 since he is the
perfect God-image. For this reason he is also called "King." His
bride (sponsa) is the human soul, which "in an inwardly hidden
spiritual mystery is joined to the Word, that two may be in one
flesh," to correspond with the mystic marriage of Christ and the
Church.19 Concurrently with the continuance of this hieros

14 Enarr. in Ps., LIV, 3 (Migne, P.L., vol. 36, col. 629): "... ubi autem homo
ad imaginem Dei factum se novit, ibi aliquid in se agnoscit amplius esse quam
datum est pecoribus."

15 1 Cor. 15 : 47.

16 In Joannis Evangelium, Tract. LXXVIII, 3 (Migne, P.L., vol. 35, col. 1836):
"Christus est Deus, anima rationalis et caro" (Christ is God, a rational soul and
a body).

17 Sermo CCXXXVII, 4 (Migne, P.L., vol. 38, col. 1124): "(Verbum) suscepit totum
quasi plenum hominem, animam et corpus hominis. Et si aliquid scrupulosius
vis audire; quia animam et carnem habet et pecus, cum dico animam humanam
et carnem humanam, totam animam humanam accepit."

18 Enarr. in Ps., LIV, 1 (Migne, P.L., vol. 36, col. 628).

19 Contra Faustum, XXII, 38 (Migne, P.L., vol. 42, col. 424): "Est enim et sancta
Ecclesia Domino Jesu Christo in occulto uxor. Occulte quippe atque intus in
abscondito secreto spirituali anima humana inhaeret Verbo Dei, ut sint duo in
carne una." Cf. St. Augustine's Reply to Faustus the Manichaean (trans, by
Richard Stothert, p. 433): "The holy Church, too, is in secret the spouse of the

AION

gamos in the dogma and rites of the Church, the symbolism
developed in the course of the Middle Ages into the alchemical
conjunction of opposites, or "chymical wedding," thus giving
rise on the one hand to the concept of the lapis philosophorum,
signifying totality, and on the other hand to the concept of
chemical combination.
73 The God-image in man that was damaged by the first sin
can be ''reformed"20 with the help of God, in accordance with
Romans 12:2: "And be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove
what is . . . the will of God" (RSV). The totality images which
the unconscious produces in the course of an individuation
process are similar "reformations" of an a priori archetype (the
mandala). 21 As I have already emphasized, the spontaneous sym-
bols of the self, or of wholeness, cannot in practice be distin-
guished from a God-image. Despite the word ^era^op^ovaBe ('be
transformed') in the Greek text of the above quotation, the
"renewal" (dyaKaiVwo-is, reformatio) of the mind is not meant as
an actual alteration of consciousness, but rather as the restora-
tion of an original condition, an apocatastasis. This is in exact
agreement with the empirical findings of psychology, that there
is an ever-present archetype of wholeness22 which may easily
disappear from the purview of consciousness or may never be
perceived at all until a consciousness illuminated by conversion
recognizes it in the figure of Christ. As a result of this "anam-
nesis" the original state of oneness with the God-image is re-
stored. It brings about an integration, a bridging of the split in
the personality caused by the instincts striving apart in different
and mutually contradictory directions. The only time the split

Lord Jesus Christ. For it is secretly, and in the hidden depths of the spirit, that
the soul of man is joined to the word of God, so that they are two in one flesh."
St. Augustine is referring here to Eph. 5 : 3 if.: "For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be
one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."

20 Augustine, De Trinitate, XIV, 22 (Migne, P.L., vol. 42, col. 1053): "Reforma-
mini in novitate mentis vostrae, ut incipiat ilia imago ab illo reformari, a quo
formata est" (Be reformed in the newness of your mind; the beginning of the
image's reforming must come from him who first formed it) (trans, by John
Burnaby, p. 120).

21 Cf. "Concerning Mandala Symbolism," in Part I of vol. 9.

22 Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 323ft.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

does not occur is when a person is still as legitimately uncon-
scious of his instinctual life as an animal. But it proves harmful
and impossible to endure when an artificial unconsciousness—
a repression— no longer reflects the life of the instincts.

74 There can be no doubt that the original Christian concep-
tion of the imago Dei embodied in Christ meant an all-
embracing totality that even includes the animal side of man.
Nevertheless the Christ-symbol lacks wholeness in the modern
psychological sense, since it does not include the dark side of
things but specifically excludes it in the form of a Luciferian
opponent. Although the exclusion of the power of evil was
something the Christian consciousness was well aware of, all it
lost in effect was an insubstantial shadow, for, through the doc-
trine of the privatio boni first propounded by Origen, evil was
characterized as a mere diminution of good and thus deprived
of substance. According to the teachings of the Church, evil is
simply "the accidental lack of perfection." This assumption
resulted in the proposition "omne bonum a Deo, omne malum
ab homine." Another logical consequence was the subsequent
elimination of the devil in certain Protestant sects.

75 Thanks to the doctrine of the privatio boni, wholeness
seemed guaranteed in the figure of Christ. One must, however,
take evil rather more substantially when one meets it on the
plane of empirical psychology. There it is simply the opposite
of good. In the ancient world the Gnostics, whose arguments
were very much influenced by psychic experience, tackled the
problem of evil on a broader basis than the Church Fathers. For
instance, one of the things they taught was that Christ "cast off
his shadow from himself." 23 If we give this view the weight it

23 Irenaeus (Adversus haereses, II, 5, 1) records the Gnostic teaching that when
Christ, as the demiurgic Logos, created his mother's being, he "cast her out of
the Pleroma— that is, he cut her off from knowledge." For creation took place
outside the pleroma, in the shadow and the void. According to Valentinus {Adv.
haer., I, 11, 1), Christ did not spring from the Aeons of the pleroma, but from the
mother who was outside it. She bore him, he says, "not without a kind of
shadow." But he, "being masculine, ' cast off the shadow from himself and
returned to the Pleroma (/cat tovtov [Xpierbv] p.kv are &ppeva vwapxovTa diroKo^apra
&<p' eavrov tt\v aiaav, avahpap-eiv els rb ITX^pw^ia kt\.), while his mother, "being left
behind in the shadow, and deprived of spiritual substance, ' there gave birth to
the real "Demiurge and Pantokrator of the lower world. ' But the shadow which
lies over the world is, as we know from the Gospels, the princeps huius mundi,
the devil. Cf. The Writings of Irenaeus, I, pp. 45L

AION

deserves, we can easily recognize the cut-off counterpart in the
figure of Antichrist. The Antichrist develops in legend as a per-
verse imitator of Christ's life. He is a true avn/u/xov wvevfia, an
imitating spirit of evil who follows in Christ's footsteps like a
shadow following the body. This complementing of the bright
but one-sided figure of the Redeemer— we even find traces of it
in the New Testament— must be of especial significance. And
indeed, considerable attention was paid to it quite early.

76 If we see the traditional figure of Christ as a parallel to the
psychic manifestation of the self, then the Antichrist would cor-
respond to the shadow of the self, namely the dark half of the
human totality, which ought not to be judged too optimistically.
So far as we can judge from experience, light and shadow are so
evenly distributed in man's nature that his psychic totality
appears, to say the least of it, in a somewhat murky light. The
psychological concept of the self, in part derived from our
knowledge of the whole man, but for the rest depicting itself
spontaneously in the products of the unconscious as an arche-
typal quaternity bound together by inner antinomies, cannot
omit the shadow that belongs to the light figure, for without it
this figure lacks body and humanity. In the empirical self, light
and shadow form a paradoxical unity. In the Christian concept,
on the other hand, the archetype is hopelessly split into two
irreconcilable halves, leading ultimately to a metaphysical dual-
ism—the final separation of the kingdom of heaven from the
fiery world of the damned.

77 For anyone who has a positive attitude towards Christianity
the problem of the Antichrist is a hard nut to crack. It is noth-
ing less than the counterstroke of the devil, provoked by God's
Incarnation; for the devil attains his true stature as the adver-
sary of Christ, and hence of God, only after the rise of Chris-
tianity, while as late as the Book of Job he was still one of God's
sons and on familiar terms with Yahweh.24 Psychologically the
case is clear, since the dogmatic figure of Christ is so sublime
and spotless that everything else turns dark beside it. It is, in
fact, so one-sidedly perfect that it demands a psychic comple-
ment to restore the balance. This inevitable opposition led very
early to the doctrine of the two sons of God, of whom the elder

24 Cf. R. Scharf, "Die Gestalt des Satans im Alten Testament."

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

was called Satanael.25 The coming of the Antichrist is not just a
prophetic prediction— it is an inexorable psychological law
whose existence, though unknown to the author of the Johan-
nine Epistles, brought him a sure knowledge of the impending
enantiodromia. Consequently he wrote as if he were conscious
of the inner necessity for this transformation, though we may be
sure that the idea seemed to him like a divine revelation. In
reality every intensified differentiation of the Christ-image
brings about a corresponding accentuation of its unconscious
complement, thereby increasing the tension between above and
below.
78 In making these statements we are keeping entirely within
the sphere of Christian psychology and symbolism. A factor that
no one has reckoned with, however, is the fatality inherent in
the Christian disposition itself, which leads inevitably to a re-
versal of its spirit — not through the obscure workings of chance
but in accordance with psychological law. The ideal of spiritu-
ality striving for the heights was doomed to clash with the ma-
terialistic earth-bound passion to conquer matter and master the
world. This change became visible at the time of the "Renais-
sance." The word means "rebirth," and it referred to the re-
newal of the antique spirit. We know today that this spirit was
chiefly a mask; it was not the spirit of antiquity that was reborn,
but the spirit of medieval Christianity that underwent strange
pagan transformations, exchanging the heavenly goal for an
earthly one, and the vertical of the Gothic style for a horizontal
perspective (voyages of discovery, exploration of the world and
of nature). The subsequent developments that led to the En-
lightenment and the French Revolution have produced a world-
wide situation today which can only be called "antichristian" in
a sense that confirms the early Christian anticipation of the "end
of time." It is as if, with the coming of Christ, opposites that
were latent till then had become manifest, or as if a pendu-
lum had swung violently to one side and were now carrying out
the complementary movement in the opposite direction. No
tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to
hell. The double meaning of this movement lies in the nature of
the pendulum. Christ is without spot, but right at the begin-
ning of his career there occurs the encounter with Satan, the
25 "The Spirit Mercurius," par. 271.

AION

Adversary, who represents the counterpole of that tremendous
tension in the world psyche which Christ's advent signified. He
is the "mysterium iniquitatis" that accompanies the "sol iusti-
tiae" as inseparably as the shadow belongs to the light, in exactly
the same way, so the Ebionites26 and Euchites27 thought, that
one brother cleaves to the- other. Both strive for a kingdom: one
for the kingdom of heaven, the other for the "principatus huius
mundi." We hear of a reign of a "thousand years" and of a "com-
ing of the Antichrist," just as if a partition of worlds and epochs
had taken place between two royal brothers. The meeting with
Satan was therefore more than mere chance; it was a link in the
chain.
79 Just as we have to remember the gods of antiquity in order
to appreciate the psychological value of the anima /animus
archetype, so Christ is our nearest analogy of the self and its
meaning. It is naturally not a question of a collective value
artificially manufactured or arbitrarily awarded, but of one that
is effective and present per se, and that makes its effectiveness
felt whether the subject is conscious of it or not. Yet, although
the attributes of Christ (consubstantiality with the Father, co-
eternity, filiation, parthenogenesis, crucifixion, Lamb sacrificed
between opposites, One divided into Many, etc.) undoubtedly
mark him out as an embodiment of the self, looked at from the
psychological angle he corresponds to only one half of the arche-
type. The other half appears in the Antichrist. The latter is
just as much a manifestation of the self, except that he consists
of its dark aspect. Both are Christian symbols, and they have the
same meaning as the image of the Saviour crucified between two
thieves. This great symbol tells us that the progressive develop-
ment and differentiation of consciousness leads to an ever more
menacing awareness of the conflict and involves nothing less
than a crucifixion of the ego, its agonizing suspension between
irreconcilable opposites.28 Naturally there can be no question

26 Jewish Christians who formed a Gnostic-syncretistic party.

27 A Gnostic sect mentioned in Epiphanius, Panarium adversus octoginta haereses,
LXXX, 1-3, and in Michael Psellus, De daemonibus (in Marsilius Ficinus, Auc-
tores Platonici [Iamblichus de mysteriis Aegyptiorum], Venice, 1497).

28 "Oportuit autem ut alter illorum extremorum isque optimus appellaretur Dei
films propter suam excellentiam; alter vero ipsi ex diametro oppositus, mali dae-
monis, Satanae diabolique filius diceretur" (But it is fitting that one of these two
extremes, and that the best, should be called the Son of God because of his excel-

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

of a total extinction of the ego, for then the focus of conscious-
ness would be destroyed, and the result would be complete un-
consciousness. The relative abolition of the ego affects only
those supreme and ultimate decisions which confront us in
situations where there are insoluble conflicts of duty. This
means, in other words, that in such cases the ego is a suffering
bystander who decides nothing but must submit to a decision and
surrender unconditionally. The "genius" of man, the higher
and more spacious part of him whose extent no one knows, has
the final word. It is therefore well to examine carefully the psy-
chological aspects of the individuation process in the light of
Christian tradition, which can describe it for us with an exact-
ness and impressiveness far surpassing our feeble attempts, even
though the Christian image of the self— Christ— lacks the shadow
that properly belongs to it.
80 The reason for this, as already indicated, is the doctrine of
the Summum Bonum. Irenaeus says very rightly, in refuting the

lence, and the other, diametrically opposed to him, the son of the evil demon, of
Satan and the devil) (Origen, Contra Celsum, VI, 45; in Migne, P.G., vol. 11, col.
1367; cf. trans, by Chadwick, p. 362). The opposites even condition one another:
"Ubi quid malum est . . . ibi necessario bonum esse malo contrarium. . . .
Alterum ex altero sequitur: proinde aut utrumque tollendum est negandumque
bona et mala esse; aut admisso altero maximeque malo, bonum quoque admissum
oportet." (Where there is evil . . . there must needs be good contrary to the
evil. . . . The one follows from the other; hence we must either do away with
both, and deny that good and evil exist, or if we admit the one, and particularly
evil, we must also admit the good.) (Contra Celsum, II, 51; in Migne, P.G., vol. 11,
col. 878; cf. trans, by Chadwick, p. 106.) In contrast to this clear, logical statement
Origen cannot help asserting elsewhere that the "Powers, Thrones, and Prin-
cipalities" down to the evil spirits and impure demons "do not have it— the con-
trary virtue— substantially" ("non substantialiter id habeant scl. virtus adversaria"),
and that they were not created evil but chose the condition of wickedness
("malitiae gradus") of their own free will. (De principiis, I, vin, 4; in Migne, P.G.,
vol. 11, col. 179.) Origen is already committed, at least by implication, to the
definition of God as the Summum Bonum, and hence betrays the inclination to
deprive evil of substance. He comes very close to the Augustinian conception of
the privatio boni when he says: "Certum namque est malum esse bono carere"
(For it is certain that to be evil means to be deprived of good). But this sentence
is immediately preceded by the following: "Recedere autem a bono, non aliud est
quam effici in malo" (To turn aside from good is nothing other than to be per-
fected in evil) (De principiis, II, ix, 2; in Migne, P.G., vol. 11, cols. 226-27). This
shows clearly that an increase in the one means a diminution of the other, so
that good and evil represent equivalent halves of an opposition.

AION

Gnostics, that exception must be taken to the "light of their
Father," because it "could not illuminate and fill even those
things which were within it," 29 namely the shadow and the
void. It seemed to him scandalous and reprehensible to suppose
that within the pleroma of light there could be a "dark and
formless void." For the Christian neither God nor Christ could
be a paradox; they had to have a single meaning, and this holds
true to the present day. No one knew, and apparently (with a
few commendable exceptions) no one knows even now, that the
hybris of the speculative intellect had already emboldened the
ancients to propound a philosophical definition of God that
more or less obliged him to be the Summum Bonum. A Protes-
tant theologian has even had the temerity to assert that "God
can only be good." Yahweh could certainly have taught him a
thing or two in this respect, if he himself is unable to see his
intellectual trespass against God's freedom and omnipotence.
This forcible usurpation of the Summum Bonum naturally has
its reasons, the origins of which lie far back in the past (though
I cannot enter into this here). Nevertheless, it is the effective
source of the concept of the privatio boni, which nullifies the
reality of evil and can be found as early as Basil the Great
(330-79) and Dionysius the Areopagite (2nd half of the 4th
century), and is fully developed in Augustine.

81 The earliest authority of all for the later axiom "Omne
bonum a Deo, omne malum ab homine" is Tatian (2nd cen-
tury), who says: "Nothing evil was created by God; we ourselves
have produced all wickedness." 30 This view is also adopted by
Theophilus of Antioch (2nd century) in his treatise Ad Autoly-
cum.sl

82 Basil says:

You must not look upon God as the author of the existence of evil,
nor consider that evil has any subsistence in itself [tStav inrooratnv
rov kclkov dvai\. For evil does not subsist as a living being does, nor
can we set before our eyes any substantial essence [ovaiav ewiroo-Tarov]
thereof. For evil is the privation [cn-ep^cn?] of good. . . . And thus
evil does not inhere in its own substance [£v ISia v-n-dpia], but arises

29 Adv. haer., II, 4, 3. 30 Oratio ad Graecos (Migne, P.G., vol. 6, col. 829).

31 Migne, P.G., vol. 6, col. 1080.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

from the mutilation [n-qpwfiamv] of the soul.32 Neither is it uncreated,
as the wicked say who set up evil for the equal of good . . . nor is
it created. For if all things are of God, how can evil arise from
good? 33

83 Another passage sheds light on the logic of this statement. In
the second homily of the Hexaemeron, Basil says:

It is equally impious to say that evil has its origin from God, be-
cause the contrary cannot proceed from the contrary. Life does not
engender death, darkness is not the origin of light, sickness is not
the maker of health. . . . Now if evil is neither uncreated nor
created by God, whence comes its nature? That evil exists no one
living in the world will deny. What shall we say, then? That evil is
not a living and animated entity, but a condition [Sia&o-is] of the soul
opposed to virtue, proceeding from light-minded [paOvfiots] persons
on account of their falling away from good. . . . Each of us should
acknowledge that he is the first author of the wickedness in him.34

84 The perfectly natural fact that when you say "high" you
immediately postulate "low" is here twisted into a causal rela-
tionship and reduced to absurdity, since it is sufficiently obvious
that darkness produces no light and light produces no darkness.
The idea of good and evil, however, is the premise for any moral
judgment. They are a logically equivalent pair of opposites and,
as such, the sine qua non of all acts of cognition. From the
empirical standpoint we cannot say more than this. And from
this standpoint we would have to assert that good and evil, being
coexistent halves of a moral judgment, do not derive from one
another but are always there together. Evil, like good, belongs
to the category of human values, and we are the authors of moral
value judgments, but only to a limited degree are we authors of
the facts submitted to our moral judgment. These facts are
called by one person good and by another evil. Only in capital
cases is there anything like a consensus generalis. If we hold with
Basil that man is the author of evil, we are saying in the same
breath that he is also the author of good. But man is first and

32 Basil thought that the darkness of the world came from the shadow cast by the
body of heaven. Hexaemeron, II, 5 (Migne, P.G., vol. 29, col. 40).

33 Homilia: Quod Deus non est auctor malorum (Migne, P.G., vol. 31, col. 341).

34 De spiritu sancto (Migne, P.G., vol. 29, col. 37). Cf. Nine Homilies of the
Hexaemeron, trans, by Blomfield Jackson, pp. 6if.

AION

foremost the author merely of judgments; in relation to the facts
judged, his responsibility is not so easy to determine. In order
to do this, we would have to give a clear definition of the extent
of his free will. The psychiatrist knows what a desperately diffi-
cult task this is.
85 For these reasons the psychologist shrinks from metaphysical
assertions but must criticize the admittedly human foundations
of the privatio boni. When therefore Basil asserts on the one
hand that evil has no substance of its own but arises from a
"mutilation of the soul," and if on the other hand he is con-
vinced that evil really exists, then the relative reality of evil is
grounded on a real "mutilation" of the soul which must have an
equally real cause. If the soul was originally created good, then
it has really been corrupted and by something that is real, even
if this is nothing more than carelessness, indifference, and frivol-
ity, which are the meaning of the word paBvjda. When something
—I must stress this with all possible emphasis— is traced back to
a psychic condition or fact, it is very definitely not reduced to
nothing and thereby nullified, but is shifted on to the plane of
psychic reality, which is very much easier to establish empirically
than, say, the reality of the devil in dogma, who according to the
authentic sources was not invented by man at all but existed
long before he did. If the devil fell away from God of his own
free will, this proves firstly that evil was in the world before
man, and therefore that man cannot be the sole author of it,
and secondly that the devil already had a "mutilated" soul for
which we must hold a real cause responsible. The basic flaw in
Basil's argument is the petitio principii that lands him in in-
soluble contradictions: it is laid down from the start that the
independent existence of evil must be denied even in face of the
eternity of the devil as asserted by dogma. The historical reason
for this was the threat presented by Manichaean dualism. This
is especially clear in the treatise of Titus of Bostra (d. c. 370),
entitled Adversus Manichaeos^ where he states in refutation
of the Manichaeans that, so far as substance is concerned, there
is no such thing as evil.

John Chrysostom (c. 344-407) uses, instead of o-rep^ats (priva-
tio), the expression Iktpott^ tov ko.\ov (deviation, or turning away,

35 Migne, P.G., vol. 18, cols. n$2t.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

from good). He says: "Evil is nothing other than a turning away
from good, and therefore evil is secondary in relation to good." 36

87 Dionysius the Areopagite gives a detailed explanation of evil
in the fourth chapter of De divinis nominibus. Evil, he says, can-
not come from good, because if it came from good it would not
be evil. But since everything that exists comes from good, every-
thing is in some way good, but "evil does not exist at all" (to

8c KCLKOV OVTC OV IcTTlV) .

88 Evil in its nature is neither a thing nor does it bring anything
forth.

Evil does not exist at all and is neither good nor productive of

good \ovk ecrrt Ka66\ov to kclkov ovt€ ayadbv ovre dya0o7roi6vj .

All things which are, by the very fact that they are, are good and
come from good; but in so far as they are deprived of good, they
are neither good nor do they exist.

That which has no existence is not altogether evil, for the abso-
lutely non-existent will be nothing, unless it be thought of as sub-
sisting in the good superessentially [Kara to wrcpovmov]. Good, then,
as absolutely existing and as absolutely non-existing, will stand in
the foremost and highest place [ttoWw npoTepov wrepi8pvp.£vov], while
evil is neither in that which exists nor in that which does not exist
[to 8c kclkov ovtc iv Tois ovctlv, ovtc iv tois p,yj ovctlv]-37

89 These quotations show with what emphasis the reality of
evil was denied by the Church Fathers. As already mentioned,
this hangs together with the Church's attitude to Manichaean
dualism, as can plainly be seen in St. Augustine. In his polemic
against the Manichaeans and Marcionites he makes the follow-
ing declaration:

For this reason all things are good, since some things are better than
others and the goodness of the less good adds to the glory of the
better. . . . Those things we call evil, then, are defects in good
things, and quite incapable of existing in their own right outside
good things. . . . But those very defects testify to the natural good-
ness of things. For what is evil by reason of a defect must obviously
be good of its own nature. For a defect is something contrary to
nature, something which damages the nature of a thing— and it can

36 Responsiones ad orthodoxas (Migne, P.G., vol. 6, cols. 1313-14).

37 Migne, P.G., vol. 3, cols. 716-18. Cf. the Works of Dionysius the Areopagite,
trans, by John Parker, I, pp. 53ft*.

AION

do so only by diminishing that thing's goodness. Evil therefore is
nothing but the privation of good. And thus it can have no existence
anywhere except in some good thing. ... So there can be things
which are good without any evil in them, such as God himself, and
the higher celestial beings; but there can be no evil things without
good. For if evils cause no damage to anything, they are not evils; if
they do damage something, they diminish its goodness; and if they
damage it still more, it is because it still has some goodness which
they diminish; and if they swallow it up altogether, nothing of its
nature is left to be damaged. And so there will be no evil by which
it can be damaged, since there is then no nature left whose goodness
any damage can diminish.38

9° The Liber Sententiarum ex Augustino says (CLXXVI):
"Evil is not a substance,39 for as it has not God for its author, it

38 "Nunc vero ideo sunt omnia bona, quia sunt aliis alia meliora, et bonitas
inferiorum addit laudibus meliorum. . . . Ea vero quae dicuntur mala, aut vitia
sunt rerum bonarum, quae omnino extra res bonas per se ipsa alicubi esse non
possunt. . . . Sed ipsa quoque vitia testimonium perhibent bonitati naturarum.
Quod enim malum est per vitium, profecto bonum est per naturam. Vitium
quippe contra naturam est, quia naturae nocet; nee noceret, nisi bonum eius
minueret. Non est ergo malum nisi privatio boni. Ac per hoc nusquam est nisi
in re aliqua bona. ... Ac per hoc bona sine malis esse possunt, sicut ipse Deus,
et quaeque superiora coelestia; mala vero sine bonis esse non possunt. Si enim
nihil nocent, mala non sunt; si autem nocent, bonum minuunt; et si amplius
nocent, habent adhuc bonum quod minuant; et si totum consumunt, nihil
naturae remanebit qui noceatur; ac per hoc nee malum erit a quo noceatur,
quando natura defuerit, cuius bonum nocendo minuatur." {Contra adversarium
legis et prophetarum, I, 41".; in Migne, P.L., vol. 42, cols. 606-7.) Although the
Dialogus Quaestionum LXV is not an authentic writing of Augustine's, it reflects
his standpoint very clearly. Quaest. XVI: "Cum Deus omnia bona creaverit,
nihilque sit quod non ab illo conditum sit, unde malum? Resp. Malum natura
non est; sed privatio boni hoc nomen accepit. Denique bonum potest esse sine
malo, sed malum non potest esse sine bono, nee potest esse malum ubi non fuerit
bonum. . . . Ideoque quando dicimus bonum, naturam laudamus; quando dici-
mus malum, non naturam sed vitium, quod est bonae naturae contrarium repre-
hendimus." (Question XVI: Since God created all things good and there is
nothing which was not created by him, whence arises evil? Answer: Evil is not a
natural thing, it is rather the name given to the privation of good. Thus there can
be good without evil, but there cannot be evil without good, nor can there be evil
where there is no good. . . . Therefore, when we call a thing good, we praise its
inherent nature; when we call a thing evil, we blame not its nature, but some
defect in it contrary to its nature, which is good.)

39 "Iniquity has no substance" (CCXXVIII). "There is a nature in which there is
no evil— in which, indeed, there can be no evil. But it is impossible for a nature
to exist in which there is no good" (CLX).

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

does not exist; and so the defect of corruption is nothing else
than the desire or act of a misdirected will." 40 Augustine agrees
with this when he says: "The steel is not evil; but the man who
uses the steel for a criminal purpose, he is evil." 41

These quotations clearly exemplify the standpoint of Diony-
sius and Augustine: evil has no substance or existence in itself,
since it is merely a diminution of good, which alone has sub-
stance. Evil is a vitium, a bad use of things as a result of errone-
ous decisions of the will (blindness due to evil desire, etc.).
Thomas Aquinas, the great theoretician of the Church, says with
reference to the above quotation from Dionysius:

One opposite is known through the other, as darkness is known
through light. Hence also what evil is must be known from the
nature of good. Now we have said above that good is everything
appetible; and thus, since every nature desires its own being and its
own perfection, it must necessarily be said that the being and per-
fection of every created thing is essentially good. Hence it cannot
be that evil signifies a being, or any form or nature. Therefore it
must be that by the name of evil is signified the absence of good.42

Evil is not a being, whereas good is a being.43

That every agent works for an end clearly follows from the fact
that every agent tends to something definite. Now that to which
an agent tends definitely must needs be befitting to that agent, since
the latter would not tend to it save on account of some fittingness
thereto. But that which is befitting to a thing is good for it. There-
fore every agent works for a good.44

St. Thomas himself recalls the saying of Aristotle that "the
thing is the whiter, the less it is mixed with black," 45 without
mentioning, however, that the reverse proposition: "the thing is
the blacker, the less it is mixed with white," not only has the
same validity as the first but is also its logical equivalent. He

40 Augustini Opera omnia, Maurist edn., X, Part 2, cols. 2561-2618.

41 Sermones supposititii, Sermo I, 3, Maurist edn., V, col. 2287.

42 Summa theologica, I, q. 48, ad 1 (trans, by the Fathers of the English Dominican
Province, II, p. 264). 43 Ibid., I, q. 48, ad 3 (trans., p. 268).

44". . . Quod autem conveniens est alicui est illi bonum. Ergo omne agens agit
propter bonum" (Summa contra Gentiles, III, ch. 3, trans, by the English
Dominican Fathers, vol. Ill, p. 7).

45 Summa theologica, I, q. 48, ad 2 (trans., II, p. 266, citing Aristotle's Topics,
iii, 4).

AION

might also have mentioned that not only darkness is known
through light, but that, conversely, light is known through dark-
ness.

93 As only that which works is real, so, according to St. Thomas,
only good is real in the sense of "existing." His argument, how-
ever, introduces a good that is tantamount to "convenient, suf-
ficient, appropriate, suitable." One ought therefore to translate
"omne agens agit propter bonum" as: "Every agent works for
the sake of what suits it." That's what the devil does too, as we
all know. He too has an "appetite" and strives after perfection—
not in good but in evil. Even so, one could hardly conclude from
this that his striving is "essentially good."

94 Obviously evil can be represented as a diminution of good,
but with this kind of logic one could just as well say: The tem-
perature of the Arctic winter, which freezes our noses and ears,
is relatively speaking only a little below the heat prevailing at
the equator. For the Arctic temperature seldom falls much lower
than 2300 C. above absolute zero. All things on earth are
"warm" in the sense that nowhere is absolute zero even approxi-
mately reached. Similarly, all things are more or less "good,"
and just as cold is nothing but a diminution of warmth, so evil
is nothing but a diminution of good. The privatio boni argu-
ment remains a euphemistic petitio principii no matter whether
evil is regarded as a lesser good or as an effect of the finiteness
and limitedness of created things. The false conclusion neces-
sarily follows from the premise "Deus = Summum Bonum,"
since it is unthinkable that the perfect good could ever have
created evil. It merely created the good and the less good (which
last is simply called "worse" by laymen).46 Just as we freeze
miserably despite a temperature of 2300 above absolute zero, so
there are people and things that, although created by God, are
good only to the minimal and bad to the maximal degree.

95 It is probably from this tendency to deny any reality to evil
that we get the axiom "Omne bonum a Deo, omne malum ab
homine." This is a contradiction of the truth that he who
created the heat is also responsible for the cold ("the goodness
of the less good"). We can certainly hand it to Augustine that

46 in the Decrees of the 4th Lateran Council we read: "For the devil and the
other demons as created by God were naturally good, but became evil of their
own motion." Denzinger and Bannwart, Enchiridion symbolorum, p. 189.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

all natures are good, yet just not good enough to prevent their
badness from being equally obvious.

96 One could hardly call the things that have happened, and
still happen, in the concentration camps of the dictator states an
"accidental lack of perfection"— it would sound like mockery.

97 Psychology does not know what good and evil are in them-
selves; it knows them only as judgments about relationships.
"Good" is what seems suitable, acceptable, or valuable from a
certain point of view; evil is its opposite. If the things we call
good are "really" good, then there must be evil things that are
"real" too. It is evident that psychology is concerned with a
more or less subjective judgment, i.e., with a psychic antithesis
that cannot be avoided in naming value relationships: "good"
denotes something that is not bad, and "bad" something that is
not good. There are things which from a certain point of view
are extremely evil, that is to say dangerous. There are also things
in human nature which are very dangerous and which therefore
seem proportionately evil to anyone standing in their line of
fire. It is pointless to gloss over these evil things, because that
only lulls one into a sense of false security. Human nature is
capable of an infinite amount of evil, and the evil deeds are as
real as the good ones so far as human experience goes and so far
as the psyche judges and differentiates between them. Only un-
consciousness makes no difference between good and evil. Inside
the psychological realm one honestly does not know which of
them predominates in the world. We hope, merely, that good
does— i.e., what seems suitable to us. No one could possibly say
what the general good might be. No amount of insight into the
relativity and fallibility of our moral judgment can deliver us
from these defects, and those who deem themselves beyond good
and evil are usually the worst tormentors of mankind, because
they are twisted with the pain and fear of their own sickness.

98 Today as never before it is important that human beings
should not overlook the danger of the evil lurking within them.
It is unfortunately only too real, which is why psychology must
insist on the reality of evil and must reject any definition that
regards it as insignificant or actually non-existent. Psychology is
an empirical science and deals with realities. As a psychologist,

AION

therefore, I have neither the inclination nor the competence
to mix myself up with metaphysics. Only, I have to get polemical
when metaphysics encroaches on experience and interprets it
in a way that is not justified empirically. My criticism of the
privatio boni holds only so far as psychological experience goes.
From the scientific point of view the privatio boni, as must be
apparent to everyone, is founded on a petitio principii, where
what invariably comes out at the end is what you put in at the
beginning. Arguments of this kind have no power of convic-
tion. But the fact that such arguments are not only used but are
undoubtedly believed is something that cannot be disposed of
so easily. It proves that there is a tendency, existing right from
the start, to give priority to "good," and to do so with all the
means in our power, whether suitable or unsuitable. So if Chris-
tian metaphysics clings to the privatio boni, it is giving expres-
sion to the tendency always to increase the good and diminish
the bad. The privatio boni may therefore be a metaphysical
truth. I presume to no judgment on this matter. I must only
insist that in our field of experience white and black, light and
dark, good and bad, are equivalent opposites which always predi-
cate one another.
99 This elementary fact was correctly appreciated in the so-
called Clementine Homilies,47 a collection of Gnostic-Christian
writings dating from about a.d. 150. The unknown author un-
derstands good and evil as the right and left hand of God, and
views the whole of creation in terms of syzygies, or pairs of oppo-
sites. In much the same way the follower of Bardesanes, Marinus,
sees good as "light" and pertaining to the right hand (8e£idV), and
evil as "dark" and pertaining to the left hand (aptarepov) ,48 The
left also corresponds to the feminine. Thus in Irenaeus (Adv.
haer., I, 30, 3), Sophia Prounikos is called Sinistra. Clement
finds this altogether compatible with the idea of God's unity.

■*7 Harnack (Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, p. 332) ascribes the Clementine
Homilies to the beginning of the 4th cent, and is of the opinion that they contain
"no source that could be attributed with any certainty to the 2nd century." He
thinks that Islam is far superior to this theology. Yahweh and Allah are un-
reflected God-images, whereas in the Clementine Homilies there is a psychological
and reflective spirit at work. It is not immediately evident why this should bring
about a disintegration of the God-concept, as Harnack thinks. Fear of psychology
should not be carried too far.
48 Der Dialog des Adamantius, HI, 4 (ed. by van de Sande Bakhuyzen, p. 1 19).

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

Provided that one has an anthropomorphic God-image — and
every God-image is anthropomorphic in a more or less subtle
way — the logic and naturalness of Clement's view can hardly
be contested. At all events this view, which may be some two
hundred years older than the quotations given above, proves
that the reality of evil does not necessarily lead to Manichaean
dualism and so does not endanger the unity of the God-image.
As a matter of fact, it guarantees that unity on a plane beyond
the crucial difference between the Yahwistic and the Christian
points of view. Yahweh is notoriously unjust, and injustice is
not good. The God of Christianity, on the other hand, is only
good. There is no denying that Clement's theology helps us to
get over this contradiction in a way that fits the psychological
facts.

It is therefore worth following up Clement's line of thought
a little more closely. "God," he says, "appointed two king-
doms [BaaiXelas] and two ages [afovas], determining that the pres-
ent world should be given over to evil [wovrjpu], because it is small
and passes quickly away. But he promised to preserve the future
world for good, because it is great and eternal." Clement goes
on to say that this division into two corresponds to the structure
of man: the body comes from the female, who is characterized
by emotionality; the spirit comes from the male, who stands for
rationality. He calls body and spirit the "two triads." 49

Man is a compound of two mixtures [4>vpaixa.Twv, lit. 'pastes'], the
female and the male. Wherefore also two ways have been laid before
him — those of obedience and of disobedience to law; and two king-
doms have been established — the one called the kingdom of heaven,
and the other the kingdom of those who are now rulers upon
earth. ... Of these two, the one does violence to the other. More-
over these two rulers are the swift hands of God.

That is a reference to Deuteronomy 32 : 39: "I will kill and I
will make to live" (DV). He kills with the left hand and saves
with the right.

49 The female or somatic triad consist of kiridvu'ta (desire), dpyri (anger), and
X6x7? (grief); the male, of \oy 107x6s (reflection), yvwais (knowledge), and <j,6fios
(fear). Cf. the triad of functions in "The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairy-
tales," Part I of vol. 9, pars. 425ft.

AION

These two principles have not their substance outside of God, for
there is no other primal source [dpx7?]- Nor have they been sent forth
from God as animals, for they were of the same mind [6/xdSo|ot] with
him. . . . But from God were sent forth the four first elements-
hot and cold, moist and dry. In consequence of this, he is the
Father of every substance [ovo-i'as], but not of the knowledge which
arises from the mixing of the elements.50 For when these were com-
bined from without, choice [irpoaipecn<i] was begotten in them as a
child.51

That is to say, through the mixing of the four elements in-
equalities arose which caused uncertainty and so necessitated
decisions or acts of choice. The four elements form the fourfold
substance of the body (reTpaytvrjs tov crw/xaros ovcria) and also of
evil (tov irovrjpov). This substance was "carefully discriminated
and sent forth from God, but when it was combined from with-
out, according to the will of him who sent it forth, there arose,
as a result of the combination, the preference which rejoices in

evils [17 kclkoi<; x<Lipov<ra 7r/ooatpco-t?]." 52

101 The last sentence is to be understood as follows: The four-
fold substance is eternal (oiW dei) and God's child. But the
tendency to evil was added from outside to the mixture willed

by God (/caTa rrjv tov deov fiovkrjcnv e|o> Trj Kpdau o~o(x(Si^r)Ktv). Thus

evil is not created by God or by any one else, nor was it pro-
jected out of him, nor did it arise of itself. Peter, who is engaged
in these reflections, is evidently not quite sure how the matter
stands.

102 It seems as if, without God's intending it (and possibly with-
out his knowing it) the mixture of the four elements took a
wrong turning, though this is rather hard to square with Clem-
ent's idea of the opposite hands of God "doing violence to one
another." Obviously Peter, the leader of the dialogue, finds it
rather difficult to attribute the cause of evil to the Creator in
so many words.

">3 The author of the Homilies espouses a Petrine Christianity
distinctly "High Church" or ritualistic in flavour. This, taken

50 p. de Lagarde (Clementina, p. 190) has here . . . wdffTjs ovcrlas . . . otfcrrjs
yvwfirjs- The reading ov ttjs seems to me to make more sense.

51 Ch. Ill: Tys fierh ry\v icpaaiv.

52 The Clementine Homilies and the Apostolical Constitutions, trans, by Thomas
Smith et al., pp. 3i2ff. (slightly modified).

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

together with his doctrine of the dual aspect of God, brings him
into close relationship with the early Jewish-Christian Church,
where, according to the testimony of Epiphanius, we find the
Ebionite notion that God had two sons, an elder one, Satan,
and a younger one, Christ.53 Michaias, one of the speakers in the
dialogue, suggests as much when he remarks that if good and
evil were begotten in the same way they must be brothers.54

In the (Jewish-Christian?) apocalypse, the "Ascension of
Isaiah," we find, in the middle section, Isaiah's vision of the
seven heavens through which he was rapt.55 First he saw Sam-
mael and his hosts, against whom a "great battle" was raging in
the firmament. The angel then wafted him beyond this into the
first heaven and led him before a throne. On the right of the
throne stood angels who were more beautiful than the angels on
the left. Those on the right "all sang praises with one voice,"
but the ones on the left sang after them, and their singing was
not like the singing of the first. In the second heaven all the
angels were more beautiful than in the first heaven, and there
was no difference between them, either here or in any of the
higher heavens. Evidently Sammael still has a noticeable influ-
ence on the first heaven, since the angels on the left are not so
beautiful there. Also, the lower heavens are not so splendid as
the upper ones, though each surpasses the other in splendour.
The devil, like the Gnostic archons, dwells in the firmament,
and he and his angels presumably correspond to astrological
gods and influences. The gradation of splendour, going all the
way up to the topmost heaven, shows that his sphere interpene-
trates with the divine sphere of the Trinity, whose light in turn
filters down as far as the lowest heaven. This paints a picture of
complementary opposites balancing one another like right and
left hands. Significantly enough, this vision, like the Clementine
Homilies, belongs to the pre-Manichaean period (second cen-
tury), when there was as yet no need for Christianity to fight
against its Manichaean competitors. It might easily be a descrip-

53 Panarium, ed. by Oehler, I, p. 267.

54 Clement. Horn. XX, ch. VII. Since there is no trace in pseudo-Clement of the
defensive attitude towards Manichaean dualism which is so characteristic of the
later writers, it is possible that the Homilies date back to the beginning of the 3rd
cent., if not earlier.

55 Hennecke, N eutestamentliche Apokryphen, pp. 3ogff.

AION

tion of a genuine yang-yin relationship, a picture that comes
closer to the actual truth than the privatio boni. Moreover, it
does not damage monotheism in any way, since it unites the
opposites just as yang and yin are united in Tao (which the
Jesuits quite logically translated as "God"). It is as if Mani-
chaean dualism first made the Fathers conscious of the fact that
until then, without clearly realizing it, they had always believed
firmly in the substantiality of evil. This sudden realization
might well have led them to the dangerously anthropomorphic
assumption that what man cannot unite, God cannot unite
either. The early Christians, thanks to their greater unconscious-
ness, were able to avoid this mistake.

1Q5 Perhaps we may risk the conjecture that the problem of the
Yahwistic God-image, which had been constellated in men's
minds ever since the Book of Job, continued to be discussed in
Gnostic circles and in syncretistic Judaism generally, all the
more eagerly as the Christian answer to this question— namely
the unanimous decision in favour of God's goodness 56— did not
satisfy the conservative Jews. In this respect, therefore, it is sig-
nificant that the doctrine of the two antithetical sons of God
originated with the Jewish Christians living in Palestine. Inside
Christianity itself the doctrine spread to the Bogomils and
Cathars; in Judaism it influenced religious speculation and
found lasting expression in the two sides of the cabalistic Tree
of the Sephiroth, which were named hesed (love) and din (jus-
tice). A rabbinical scholar, Zwi Werblowsky, has been kind
enough to put together for me a number of passages from
Hebrew literature which have bearing on this problem.

106 R. Joseph taught: "What is the meaning of the verse, 'And
none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the
morning?' (Exodus 12 : 22.) 57 Once permission has been granted
to the destroyer, he does not distinguish between the righteous
and the wicked. Indeed, he even begins with the righteous." 58
Commenting on Exodus 33 : 5 ("If for a single moment I should
go up among you, I would consume you"), the midrash says:
"Yahweh means he could wax wroth with you for a moment—

66 Cf. Matt. 19: 17 and Mark 10: 18.

57 A reference to the slaying of the first-born in Egypt.

58 Nezikin I, Baba Kamma 60 (in The Babylonian Talmud, trans, and ed. by
Isidore Epstein, p. 348 [hereafter abbr. BT\, slightly modified).

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

for that is the length of his wrath, as is said in Isaiah 26 : 20,
'Hide yourselves for a little moment until the wrath is past'—
and destroy you." Yahweh gives warning here of his unbridled
irascibility. If in this moment of divine wrath a curse is uttered,
it will indubitably be effective. That is why Balaam, "who
knows the thoughts of the Most High," 59 when called upon by
Balak to curse Israel, was so dangerous an enemy, because he
knew the moment of Yahweh's wrath.60

i°7 God's love and mercy are named his right hand, but his
justice and his administration of it are named his left hand.
Thus we read in I Kings 22 : 19: "I saw the Lord sitting on his
throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his
right hand and on his left." The midrash comments: "Is there
right and left on high? This means that the intercessors stand
on the right and the accusers on the left." 61 The comment on
Exodus 15:6 ("Thy right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, thy
right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy") runs: "When the chil-
dren of Israel perform God's will, they make the left hand his
right hand. When they do not do his will, they make even the
right hand his left hand."62 "God's left hand dashes to pieces;
his right hand is glorious to save." 63

108 The dangerous aspect of Yahweh's justice comes out in the
following passage: "Even so said the Holy One, blessed be He:
If I create the world on the basis of mercy alone, its sins will be
great; but on the basis of justice alone the world cannot exist.
Hence I will create it on the basis of justice and mercy, and may
it then stand!"64 The midrash on Genesis 18 : 23 (Abraham's
plea for Sodom) says (Abraham speaking): "If thou desirest the
world to endure, there can be no absolute justice, while if thou
desirest absolute justice, the world cannot endure. Yet thou
wouldst hold the cord by both ends, desiring both the world and
absolute justice. Unless thou forgoest a little, the world cannot
endure." 65

59 Numbers 24: 16. 60 Zera'im I, Berakoth 7a (BT, p. 31).

61 Midrash Tanchuma Shemoth XVII.

62 Cf. Pentateuch with Targum Onkelos . . . and Rashi's Commentary, trans, by
M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, II, p. 76.

63 Midrash on Song of Sol. 2 : 6.

64 Bereshith Rabba XII, 15 (Midrash Rabbah translated into English, ed. by
H. Freedman and M. Simon, I, p. 99; slightly modified).

65 Ibid. XXXIX, 6 (p. 315).

AION

109 Yahweh prefers the repentant sinners even to the righteous,
and protects them from his justice by covering them with his
hand or by hiding them under his throne.66

no With reference to Habakkuk 2 : 3 ("For still the vision awaits
its time. ... If it seem slow, wait for it"), R. Jonathan says:
"Should you say, We wait [for his coming] but He does not, it
stands written (Isaiah 30 : 18), 'Therefore will the Lord wait,
that he may be gracious unto you.' . . . But since we wait and
he waits too. what delays his coming? Divine justice delays it." 67
It is in this sense that we have to understand the prayer of
R. Jochanan: "May it be thy will, O Lord our God, to look upon
our shame and behold our evil plight. Clothe thyself in thy
mercies, cover thyself in thy strength, wrap thyself in thy lov-
ing-kindness, and gird thyself with thy graciousness, and may
thy goodness and gentleness come before thee." 68 God is prop-
erly exhorted to remember his good qualities. There is even a
tradition that God prays to himself: "May it be My will that
My mercy may suppress My anger, and that My compassion may
prevail over My other attributes." 69 This tradition is borne out
by the following story:

R. Ishmael the son of Elisha said: I once entered the innermost
sanctuary to offer incense, and there I saw Akathriel 70 Jah Jahweh
Zebaoth71 seated upon a high and exalted throne. He said to me,
Ishmael, my son, bless me! And I answered him: May it be Thy
will that Thy mercy may suppress Thy anger, and that Thy com-
passion may prevail over Thy other attributes, so that Thou mayest
deal with Thy children according to the attribute of mercy and
stop short of the limit of strict justice! And He nodded to me with
His head.?2

111 It is not difficult to see from these quotations what was the
effect of Job's contradictory God-image. It became a subject for
religious speculation inside Judaism and, through the medium

66 Mo'ed IV, Pesahim 119 (BT, p. 613); Nezikin VI, Sanhedrin II, 103 (BT,
pp. 6g8ff.). 67 Nezikin VI, Sanhedrin II, 97 (BT, p. 659; modified).

QSZera'im I, Berakoth 16b (BT, p. 98; slightly modified). 69 Ibid. 7a (p. 30).

70 "Akathriel" is a made-up word composed of ktr = kether (throne) and el, the
name of God.

71 A string of numinous God names, usually translated as "the Lord of Hosts."

72 Zera'im I, Berakoth 7 (BT, p. 30; slightly modified).

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

of the Cabala, it evidently had an influence on Jakob Bohme. In
his writings we find a similar ambivalence, namely the love and
the "wrath-fire" of God, in which Lucifer burns for ever.73

Since psychology is not metaphysics, no metaphysical dualism
can be derived from, or imputed to, its statements concerning
the equivalence of opposites.74 It knows that equivalent oppo-
sites are necessary conditions inherent in the act of cognition,
and that without them no discrimination would be possible.
It is not exactly probable that anything so intrinsically bound
up with the act of cognition should be at the same time a prop-
erty of the object. It is far easier to suppose that it is primarily
our consciousness which names and evaluates the differences be-
tween things, and perhaps even creates distinctions where no
differences are discernible.

I have gone into the doctrine of the privatio boni at such
length because it is in a sense responsible for a too optimistic
conception of the evil in human nature and for a too pessimistic
view of the human soul. To offset this, early Christianity, with
unerring logic, balanced Christ against an Antichrist. For how
can you speak of "high" if there is no "low," or "right" if there
is no "left," of "good" if there is no "bad," and the one is as real
as the other? Only with Christ did a devil enter the world as the
real counterpart of God, and in early Jewish-Christian circles
Satan, as already mentioned, was regarded as Christ's elder
brother.

But there is still another reason why I must lay such critical
stress on the privatio boni. As early as Basil wre meet with the
tendency to attribute evil to the disposition (SmfleoW) of the soul,
and at the same time to give it a "non-existent" character. Since,
according to this author, evil originates in human frivolity

73 Aurora, trans, by John Sparrow, p. 423.

74 My learned friend Victor White, O.P., in his Dominican Studies (II, p. 399),
thinks he can detect a Manichaean streak in me. I don't go in for metaphysics,
but ecclesiastical philosophy undoubtedly does, and for this reason I must ask
what are we to make of hell, damnation, and the devil, if these things are eternal?
Theoretically they consist of nothing, and how does that square with the dogma
of eternal damnation? But if they consist of something, that something can hardly
be good. So where is the danger of dualism? In addition to this my critic should
know how very much I stress the unity of the self, this central archetype which
is a complexio oppositorum par excellence, and that my leanings are therefore
towards the very reverse of dualism.

AION

and therefore owes its existence to mere negligence, it exists,
so to speak, only as a by-product of psychological oversight, and
this is such a quantite negligeable that evil vanishes altogether
in smoke. Frivolity as a cause of evil is certainly a factor to be
taken seriously, but it is a factor that can be got rid of by a
change of attitude. We can act differently, if we want to. Psy-
chological causation is something so elusive and seemingly un-
real that everything which is reduced to it inevitably takes on
the character of futility or of a purely accidental mistake and is
thereby minimized to the utmost. It is an open question how
much of our modern undervaluation of the psyche stems from
this prejudice. This prejudice is all the more serious in that it
causes the psyche to be suspected of being the birthplace of all
evil. The Church Fathers can hardly have considered what a
fatal power they were ascribing to the soul. One must be posi-
tively blind not to see the colossal role that evil plays in the
world. Indeed, it took the intervention of God himself to deliver
humanity from the curse of evil, for without his intervention
man would have been lost. If this paramount power of evil is
imputed to the soul, the result can only be a negative inflation
—i.e., a daemonic claim to power on the part of the unconscious
which makes it all the more formidable. This unavoidable con-
sequence is anticipated in the figure of the Antichrist and is
reflected in the course of contemporary events, whose nature is
in accord with the Christian aeon of the Fishes, now running
to its end.
li5 In the world of Christian ideas Christ undoubtedly repre-
sents the self.75 As the apotheosis of individuality, the self has
the attributes of uniqueness and of occurring once only in time.
But since the psychological self is a transcendent concept, ex-
pressing the totality of conscious and unconscious contents, it

75 It has been objected that Christ cannot have been a valid symbol of the self,
or was only an illusory substitute for it. I can agree with this view only if it refers
strictly to the present time, when psychological criticism has become possible,
but not if it pretends to judge the pre-psychological age. Christ did not merely
symbolize wholeness, but, as a psychic phenomenon, he was wholeness. This is
proved by the symbolism as well as by the phenomenology of the past, for which—
be it noted— evil was a privatio boni. The idea of totality is, at any given time,
as total as one is oneself. Who can guarantee that our conception of totality is
not equally in need of completion? The mere concept of totality does not by any
means posit it.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

can only be described in antinomial terms; 76 that is, the above
attributes must be supplemented by their opposites if the tran-
scendental situation is to be characterized correctly. We can do
this most simply in the form of a quaternion of opposites:

UNITEMPORAL

UNIQUE

UNIVERSAL

ETERNAL

This formula expresses not only the psychological self but
also the dogmatic figure of Christ. As an historical personage
Christ is unitemporal and unique; as God, universal and eternal.
Likewise the self: as the essence of individuality it is unitempo-
ral and unique; as an archetypal symbol it is a God-image and
therefore universal and eternal.77 Now if theology describes
Christ as simply "good" and "spiritual," something "evil" and
"material" — or "chthonic" — is bound to arise on the other
side, to represent the Antichrist. The resultant quaternion of
opposites is united on the psychological plane by the fact that
the self is not deemed exclusively "good" and "spiritual"; conse-
quently its shadow turns out to be much less black. A further
result is that the opposites of "good" and "spiritual" need no
longer be separated from the whole:

GOOD

SPIRITUAL

MATERIAL OR CHTHONIC

76 Just as the transcendent nature of light can only be expressed through the
image of waves and particles.

77 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 323ft., and "The Relations between the Ego
and the Unconscious," pars. 398ft.

AION

1 »7 This quaternio characterizes the psychological self. Being a
totality, it must by definition include the light and dark aspects,
in the same way that the self embraces both masculine and
feminine and is therefore symbolized by the marriage qua-
ternio.18 This last is by no means a new discovery, since accord-
ing to Hippolytus it was known to the Naassenes.79 Hence
individuation is a "mysterium coniunctionis," the self being ex-
perienced as a nuptial union of opposite halves 80 and depicted
as a composite whole in mandalas that are drawn spontaneously
by patients.

118 It was known, and stated, very early that the man Jesus, the
son of Mary, was the principium individuationis. Thus Basili-
des 81 is reported by Hippolytus as saying: ''Now Jesus became the
first sacrifice in the discrimination of the natures [<f>v\oicpivri<ris],
and the Passion came to pass for no other reason than the dis-
crimination of composite things. For in this manner, he says, the
sonship that had been left behind in a formless state [anopsia] . . ,
needed separating into its components [<pv\oKpivqOrjvai\, in the
same way that Jesus was separated."82 According to the rather
complicated teachings of Basilides, the "non-existent" God be-
got a threefold sonship (vlorijs). The first "son," whose nature
was the finest and most subtle, remained up above with the
Father. The second son, having a grosser (iraxv^pio-Tepa) nature,
descended a bit lower, but received "some such wins: as that
with which Plato . . . equips the soul in his Phaedrus." 83 The
third son, as his nature needed purifying (air oKaOdpms), fell deep-
est into "formlessness." This third "sonship" is obviously the
grossest and heaviest because of its impurity. In these three
emanations or manifestations of the non-existent God it is not
hard to see the trichotomy of spirit, soul, and body (irvev/«m#cov,
\pvxiKov, uapKLKov). Spirit is the finest and highest; soul, as the
ligamentum spiritus et corporis, is grosser than spirit, but has
"the wings of an eagle," 84 so that it may lift its heaviness up to

78 Cf. "The Psychology of the Transference," pars. 425s.

79 Elenchos, V, 8, 2 (trans, by F. Legge, I, p. 131). Cf. infra, pars. 358ft.

80 Psychology and Alchemy, par. 334, and "The Psychology of the Transference,"
pars. 457ft. 81 Basilides lived in the 2nd cent.

82 Elenchos, VII, 27, 12 (cf. Legge trans., II, p. 79).

83 Ibid., VII, 22, 10 (cf. II, pp. 69-70).

84 Ibid., VII, 22, 15 (II, p. 70). The eagle has the same significance in alchemy.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

the higher regions. Both are of a "subtle" nature and dwell, like
the ether and the eagle, in or near the region of light, whereas the
body, being heavy, dark, and impure, is deprived of the light
but nevertheless contains the divine seed of the third sonship,
though still unconscious and formless. This seed is as it were
awakened by Jesus, purified and made capable of ascension
(avaS pofxrj),85 by virtue of the fact that the opposites were sepa-
rated in Jesus through the Passion (i.e., through his division
into four).86 Jesus is thus the prototype for the awakening of the
third sonship slumbering in the darkness of humanity. He is the
"spiritual inner man." 87 He is also a complete trichotomy in
himself, for Jesus the son of Mary represents the incarnate man,
but his immediate predecessor is the second Christ, the son of
the highest archon of the hebdomad, and his first prefiguration
is Christ the son of the highest archon of the ogdoad, the
demiurge Yahweh.88 This trichotomy of Anthropos figures cor-
responds exactly to the three sonships of the non-existing God
and to the division of human nature into three parts. We have
therefore three trichotomies:

85 This word also occurs in the well-known passage about the krater in Zosimos.
(Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, li, 8: dva8pap.€ eirl rb yivos rb adv.
86 1 must say a word here about the horos doctrine of the Valentinians in
Irenaeus (Adv. haer, I, 2, 2ff.) Horos (boundary) is a "power" or numen iden-
tical with Christ, or at least proceeding from him. It has the following synonyms:
bpodeT7)s (boundary-fixer), fieraywyevs (he who leads across), Kap-Kiarr\% (eman-
cipator), \vrpwTT]$ (redeemer), cravpos (cross). In this capacity he is the regulator
and mainstay of the universe, like Jesus. When Sophia was "formless and shape-
less as an embryo, Christ took pity on her, stretched her out through his Cross
and gave her form through his power," so that at least she acquired substance
(Adv. haer., I, 4). He also left behind for her an "intimation of immortality."
The identity of the Cross with Horos, or with Christ, is clear from the text, an
image that we find also in Paulinus of Nola:

". . . regnare deum super omnia Christum,
qui cruce dispensa per quattuor extima ligni
quattuor adtingit dimensum partibus orbem,
ut trahat ad uitam populos ex omnibus oris."

(Christ reigns over all things as God, who, on the outstretched cross, reaches out
through the four extremities of the wood to the four parts of the wide world,
that he may draw unto life the peoples from all lands.) (Carmina, ed. by Wilhelm
Hartel, Carm. XIX, 639*?., p. 140.) For the Cross as God's "lightning" cf. "A
Study in the Process of Individuation," pars. 535L

87 Elenchos, VII, 27, 5 (Legge trans., II, p. 78).

88 Ibid., VII, 26, 5 (II, p. 75).

AION
I II III

First sonship Christ of the Ogdoad Spirit

Second sonship Christ of the Hebdomad Soul

Third sonship Jesus the Son of Mary Body

119 It is in the sphere of the dark, heavy body that we must look
for the a/xoP<f>La, the "formlessness" wherein the third sonship lies
hidden. As suggested above, this formlessness seems to be prac-
tically the equivalent of "unconsciousness." G. Quispel has
drawn attention to the concepts of ayvuala in Epiphanius 89 and
kvbr\rov in Hippolytus,90 which are best translated by "uncon-
scious." 'AfjLop4>ia, ayvuvia, and b.v6r)rov all refer to the initial state
of things, to the potentiality of unconscious contents, aptly
formulated by Basilides as ovk bv cnrkpua tov kogixov iro\vtJiop<pov bixov
kclI iroXvovaiov (the non-existent, many-formed, and all-empower-
ing seed of the world).91

120 This picture of the third sonship has certain analogies with
the medieval filius philosophorum and the filius macrocosmi,
who also symbolize the world-soul slumbering in matter.92 Even
with Basilides the body acquires a special and unexpected sig-
nificance, since in it and its materiality is lodged a third of the
revealed Godhead. This means nothing less than that matter is
predicated as having considerable numinosity in itself, and I
see this as an anticipation of the "mystic" significance which
matter subsequently assumed in alchemy and— later on— in
natural science. From a psychological point of view it is par-

89 Panarium, XXXI, 5 (Oehler edn., I, p. 314).

90 Elenchos, VII, 22, 16 (Legge trans., II, p. 71). Cf. infra, pars. 298ft.

91 Ibid., 20, 5 (cf. II, p. 66). Quispel, "Note sur 'Basilide'."

92 With reference to the psychological nature of Gnostic sayings, see Quispel's
"Philo und die altchristliche Haresie," p. 432, where he quotes Irenaeus (Adv.
haer., II, 4, 2): "Id quod extra et quod intus dicere eos secundum agnitionem et
ignorantiam, sed non secundum localem sententiam" (In speaking of what is
outward and what is inward, they refer, not to place, but to what is known and
what is not known). (Cf. Legge, I, p. 127.) The sentence that follows immediately
after this— "But in the Pleroma, or in that which is contained by the Father,
everything that the demiurge or the angels have created is contained by the
unspeakable greatness, as the centre in a circle"— is therefore to be taken as a
description of unconscious contents. Quispel's view of projection calls for the
critical remark that projection does not do away with the reality of a psychic
content. Nor can a fact be called "unreal" merely because it cannot be described
as other than "psychic." Psyche is reality par excellence.

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

ticularly important that Jesus corresponds to the third sonship
and is the prototype of the "awakener" because the opposites
were separated in him through the Passion and so became con-
scious, whereas in the third sonship itself they remain uncon-
scious so long as the latter is formless and undifferentiated. This
amounts to saying that in unconscious humanity there is a latent
seed that corresponds to the prototype Jesus. Just as the man
Jesus became conscious only through the light that emanated
from the higher Christ and separated the natures in him, so the
seed in unconscious humanity is awakened by the light emanat-
ing from Jesus, and is thereby impelled to a similar discrimina-
tion of opposites. This view is entirely in accord with the psy-
chological fact that the archetypal image of the self has been
shown to occur in dreams even when no such conceptions exist
in the conscious mind of the dreamer.93

I would not like to end this chapter without a few final re-
marks that are forced on me by the importance of the material
we have been discussing. The standpoint of a psychology whose
subject is the phenomenology of the psyche is evidently some-
thing that is not easy to grasp and is very often misunderstood.
If, therefore, at the risk of repeating myself, I come back to
fundamentals, I do so only in order to forestall certain wrong
impressions which might be occasioned by what I have said,
and to spare my reader unnecessary difficulties.

The parallel I have drawn here between Christ and the self
is not to be taken as anything more than a psychological one,
just as the parallel with the fish is mythological. There is no
question of any intrusion into the sphere of metaphysics, i.e., of
faith. The images of God and Christ which man's religious
fantasy projects cannot avoid being anthropomorphic and are
admitted to be so; hence they are capable of psychological elu-
cidation like any other symbols. Just as the ancients believed
that they had said something important about Christ with their
fish symbol, so it seemed to the alchemists that their parallel
with the stone served to illuminate and deepen the meaning of
the Christ-image. In the course of time, the fish symbolism

93 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 52ft., 122ft., and "A Study in the Process of
Individuation," pars. 542, 550, 58 if.

AION

disappeared completely, and so likewise did the lapis philoso-
phorum. Concerning this latter symbol, however, there are
plenty of statements to be found which show it in a special light
—views and ideas which attach such importance to the stone
that one begins to wonder whether, in the end, it was Christ who
was taken as a symbol of the stone rather than the other way
round. This marks a development which — with the help of cer-
tain ideas in the epistles of John and Paul — includes Christ in
the realm of immediate inner experience and makes him appear
as the figure of the total man. It also links up directly with the
psychological evidence for the existence of an archetypal con-
tent possessing all those qualities which are characteristic of the
Christ-image in its archaic and medieval forms. Modern psy-
chology is therefore confronted with a question very like the
one that faced the alchemists: Is the self a symbol of Christ, or
is Christ a symbol of the self?
23 In the present study I have affirmed the latter alternative.
I have tried to show how the traditional Christ-image concen-
trates upon itself the characteristics of an archetype— the arche-
type of the self. My aim and method do not purport to be any-
thing more in principle than, shall we say, the efforts of an art
historian to trace the various influences which have contributed
towards the formation of a particular Christ-image. Thus we
find the concept of the archetype in the history of art as well as
in philology and textual criticism. The psychological archetype
differs from its parallels in other fields only in one respect: it
refers to a living and ubiquitous psychic fact, and this naturally
shows the whole situation in a rather different light. One is then
tempted to attach greater importance to the immediate and liv-
ing presence of the archetype than to the idea of the historical
Christ. As I have said, there is among certain of the alchemists,
too, a tendency to give the lapis priority over Christ. Since I
am far from cherishing any missionary intentions, I must ex-
pressly emphasize that I am not concerned here with confessions
of faith but with proven scientific facts. If one inclines to regard
the archetype of the self as the real agent and hence takes Christ
as a symbol of the self, one must bear in mind that there is a
considerable difference between perfection and completeness.
The Christ-image is as good as perfect (at least it is meant to be
so), while the archetype (so far as known) denotes completeness

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

but is far from being perfect. It is a paradox, a statement about
something indescribable and transcendental. Accordingly the
realization of the self, which would logically follow from a rec-
ognition of its supremacy, leads to a fundamental conflict, to a
real suspension between opposites (reminiscent of the crucified
Christ hanging between two thieves), and to an approximate
state of wholeness that lacks perfection. To strive after teleiosis
in the sense of perfection is not only legitimate but is inborn
in man as a peculiarity which provides civilization with one of
its strongest roots. This striving is so powerful, even, that it can
turn into a passion that draws everything into its service. Nat-
ural as it is to seek perfection in one way or another, the arche-
type fulfils itself in completeness, and this is a TeAetWi? of quite
another kind. Where the archetype predominates, completeness
is forced upon us against all our conscious strivings, in accord-
ance with the archaic nature of the archetype. The individual
may strive after perfection ("Be you therefore perfect— ri Add-
as also your heavenly Father is perfect." 94) but must suffer from
the opposite of his intentions for the sake of his completeness.
"I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present
with me."95
»24 The Christ-image fully corresponds to this situation: Christ
is the perfect man who is crucified. One could hardly think of a
truer picture of the goal of ethical endeavour. At any rate the
transcendental idea of the self that serves psychology as a work-
ing hypothesis can never match that image because, although it
is a symbol, it lacks the character of a revelatory historical event.
Like the related ideas of atman and tao in the East, the idea of
the self is at least in part a product of cognition, grounded
neither on faith nor on metaphysical speculation but on the
experience that under certain conditions the unconscious spon-
taneously brings forth an archetypal symbol of wholeness. From
this we must conclude that some such archetype occurs uni-
versally and is endowed with a certain numinosity. And there is
in fact any amount of historical evidence as well as modern case
material to prove this.90 These naive and completely uninflu-
enced pictorial representations of the symbol show that it is
given central and supreme importance precisely because it

94 Matt. 5 : 48 (DV). 95 Rom. 7:21 (AV).

96 Cf. the last two papers in Part I of vol. 9.

AION

stands for the conjunction of opposites. Naturally the conjunc-
tion can only be understood as a paradox, since a union of oppo-
sites can be thought of only as their annihilation. Paradox is a
characteristic of all transcendental situations because it alone
gives adequate expression to their indescribable nature.

25 Whenever the archetype of the self predominates, the in-
evitable psychological consequence is a state of conflict vividly
exemplified by the Christian symbol of crucifixion— that acute
state of unredeemedness which comes to an end only with the
words "consummatum est." Recognition of the archetype, there-
fore, does not in any way circumvent the Christian mystery;
rather, it forcibly creates the psychological preconditions with-
out which "redemption" would appear meaningless. "Redemp-
tion" does not mean that a burden is taken from one's shoulders
which one was never meant to bear. Only the "complete" per-
son knows how unbearable man is to himself. So far as I can
see, no relevant objection could be raised from the Christian
point of view against anyone accepting the task of individuation
imposed on us by nature, and the recognition of our whole-
ness or completeness, as a binding personal commitment. If he
does this consciously and intentionally, he avoids all the un-
happy consequences of repressed individuation. In other words,
if he voluntarily takes the burden of completeness on himself,
he need not find it "happening" to him against his will in a
negative form. This is as much as to say that anyone who is
destined to descend into a deep pit had better set about it with
all the necessary precautions rather than risk falling into the
hole backwards.

126 The irreconcilable nature of the opposites in Christian psy-
chology is due to their moral accentuation. This accentuation
seems natural to us, although, looked at historically, it is a legacy
from the Old Testament with its emphasis on righteousness in
the eyes of the law. Such an influence is notably lacking in the
East, in the philosophical religions of India and China. Without
stopping to discuss the question of whether this exacerbation of
the opposites, much as it increases suffering, may not after all
correspond to a higher degree of truth, I should like merely to
express the hope that the present world situation may be looked
upon in the light of the psychological rule alluded to above. To-
day humanity, as never before, is split into two apparently irrec-

CHRIST, A SYMBOL OF THE SELF

oncilable halves. The psychological rule says that when an in-
ner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.
That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and
does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must
perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.

7»

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

l27 The figure of Christ is not as simple and unequivocal as one
could wish. I am not referring here to the enormous difficulties
arising out of a comparison of the Synoptic Christ with the
Johannine Christ, but to the remarkable fact that in the herme-
neutic writings of the Church Fathers, which go right back to
the days of primitive Christianity, Christ has a number of sym-
bols or "allegories" in common with the devil. Of these I would
mention the lion, snake (coluber, 'viper'), bird (devil = noc-
turna avis), raven (Christ = nycticorax, 'night-heron'), eagle,
and fish. It is also worth noting that Lucifer, the Morning Star,
means Christ as well as the devil.1 Apart from the snake, the fish
is one of the oldest allegories. Nowadays we would prefer to call
them symbols, because these synonyms always contain more than
mere allegories, as is particularly obvious in the case of the fish
symbol. It is unlikely that 'IxOv? is simply an anagrammatic
abbreviation of 'if^o-oik] Xfpioro?] ®[eov] Y[ids] 25[©«jp],2 but rather

1 Early collections of such allegories in the Ancoratus of Epiphanius, and in
Augustine, Contra Faustum. For nycticorax and aquila see Eucherius, Liber for-
mularum spiritalis intelligentiae, cap. 5 (Migne, P.L., vol. 50, col. 740).

2 Augustine (City of God, trans, by J. Healey, II, p. 196) relates how the former
proconsul Flaccianus, with whom he had a conversation about Jesus, produced a
book containing the songs of the Erythraean Sibyl, and showed him the passage
where the above words, forming the acrostic 'ixOvs, are themselves the acrostic
for a whole poem, an apocalyptic prophecy of the Sibyls:

"Iudicii signum tell us sudore madescet,
E coelo Rex adveniet per saecla futurus:
Scilicet in carne praesens ut iudicet orbem.
Unde Deum cement incredulus atque fidelis
Celsum cum Sanctis, aevi iam termino in ipso.
Sic animae cum carne aderunt quasjudicat ipse . . ."
(In sign of doomsday the whole earth shall sweat.
Ever to reign a king in heavenly seat
Shall come to judge all flesh. The faithful and
Unfaithful too before this God shall stand,
Seeing him high with saints in time's last end.
78

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

the symbolical designation for something far more complex. (As
I have frequently pointed out in my other writings, I do not
regard the symbol as an allegory or a sign, but take it in its
proper sense as the best possible way of describing and formu-
lating an object that is not completely knowable. It is in this
sense that the creed is called a "symbolum.") The order of the
words gives one more the impression that they were put together
for the purpose of explaining an already extant and widely dis-
seminated "Ichthys."3 For the fish symbol, in the Near and
Middle East especially, has a long and colourful prehistory, from
the Babylonian fish-god Oannes and his priests who clothed
themselves in fish-skins, to the sacred fish-meals in the cult of the
Phoenician goddess Derceto-Atargatis and the obscurities of the
Abercius inscription.4 The symbol ranges from the redeemer-
fish of Manu in farthest India to the Eucharistic fish-feast cele-
brated by the "Thracian riders" in the Roman Empire.5 For our
purpose it is hardly necessary to go into this voluminous ma-
terial more closely. As Doelger and others have shown, there
are plenty of occasions for fish symbolism within the original,
purely Christian world of ideas. I need only mention the regen-
eration in the font, in which the baptized swim like fishes.6
2g In view of this wide distribution of the fish symbol, its
appearance at a particular place or at a particular moment in
the history of the world is no cause for wonder. But the sudden
activation of the symbol, and its identification with Christ even
in the early days of the Church, lead one to conjecture a second

Corporeal shall he sit, and thence extend
His doom on souls . . .) (Ibid., p. 437.)

The Greek original is in Oracula Sibyllina, ed. John Geffcken, p. 142. [For Augus-
tine's explanation of the discrepancy in the acrostic, see Healey trans., II, p. 196.—
Editors.]

3 Cf. Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, I, p. 76, n. 2.

4 From this inscription I will cite only the middle portion, which says: "Every-
where I had a travelling companion, since I had Paul sitting in the chariot. But
everywhere Faith drew me onward, and everywhere he set before me for food a
fish from the source, exceeding great and pure, which a holy virgin had caught.
And he offered this fish to the friends to eat, having good wine, a mixed drink
with bread." See Ramsay, "The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," p. 424.

5 Cf. the material in Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period,
V, pp. i3ff.

6 Doelger, TXGTS: Das Fischsymbol in friihchristlicher Zeit.

AION

source. This source is astrology, and it seems that Friedrich
Muenter 7 was the first to draw attention to it. Jeremias 8 adopts
the same view and mentions that a Jewish commentary on
Daniel, written in the fourteenth century, expected the coming
of the Messiah in the sign of the Fishes. This commentary is
mentioned by Muenter in a later publication 9 as stemming from
Don Isaac Abarbanel, who was born in Lisbon in 1437 and died
in Venice in 1508.10 It is explained here that the House of the
Fishes (X) is the house of justice and of brilliant splendour
(U in ^). Further, that in anno mundi 2365,11 a great conjunc-
tion of Saturn (f?) and Jupiter (U ) took place in Pisces.12 These
two great planets, he says, are also the most important for the
destiny of the world, and especially for the destiny of the Jews.
The conjunction took place three years before the birth of
Moses. (This is of course legendary.) Abarbanel expects the
coming of the Messiah when there is a conjunction of Jupiter
and Saturn in Pisces. He was not the first to express such expec-
tations. Four hundred years earlier we find similar pronounce-
ments; for instance, Rabbi Abraham ben Hiyya, who died about
1136, is said to have decreed that the Messiah was to be ex-
pected in 1464, at the time of the great conjunction in Pisces;
and the same is reported of Solomon ben Gabirol (1 020-70). 13
These astrological ideas are quite understandable when one con-
siders that Saturn is the star of Israel, and that Jupiter means
the "king" (of justice). Among the territories ruled by the
Fishes, the house of Jupiter, are Mesopotamia, Bactria, the Red
Sea, and Palestine.14 Chiun (Saturn) is mentioned in Amos 5 : 26

7 Sinnbilder und Kunstvorstellungen der alten Christen (1825), P- 49* Muenter
mentions Abrabanel (sic) here, "who in all probability drew on older sources."

8 Op. cit., p. 76.

9 Der Stern der Weisen (1827), pp. 54&\

10 Isaac Abravanel (Abarbanel) ben Jehuda, Ma'yene ha-Yeshu'ah ("Sources of
Salvation" — A Commentary on Daniel. Ferrara, 1551).

11 Corresponding to 1396 b.c.

12 Actually the conjunction took place in Sagittarius (/*). The coniunctiones
magnae of the water trigon (£2>, TIT.. X) fall m tne years 1800 to 1600 and 1000
to 800 B.C.

13 Anger, "Der Stern der Weisen und das Geburtsjahr Christi," p. 396, and Ger-
hardt, Der Stern des Messias, pp. 54L

1* Gerhardt, p. 57. Ptolemy and, following him, the Middle Ages associate Pales-
tine with Aries.

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

as "the star of your god."15 James of Sarug (d. 521) says the
Israelites worshipped Saturn. The Sabaeans called him the "god
of the Jews." 16 The Sabbath is Saturday, Saturn's Day. Al-
bumasar 17 testifies that Saturn is the star of Israel.18 In medieval
astrology Saturn was believed to be the abode of the devil.19
Both Saturn and Ialdabaoth, the demiurge and highest archon,
have lion's faces. Origen elicits from the diagram of Celsus that
Michael, the first angel of the Creator, has "the shape of a
lion." 20 He obviously stands in the place of Ialdabaoth, who is
identical with Saturn, as Origen points out.21 The demiurge of
the Naassenes is a "fiery god, the fourth by number." 22 Accord-
ing to the teachings of Apelles, who had connections with
Marcion, there was a "third god who spoke to Moses, a fiery
one, and there was also a fourth, the author of evil." 23 Between
the god of the Naassenes and the god of Apelles there is evi-
dently a close relationship, and also, it appears, with Yahweh,
the demiurge of the Old Testament.
!29 Saturn is a "black" star,24 anciently reputed a "maleficus."
"Dragons, serpents, scorpions, viperes, renards, chats et souris,
oiseaux nocturnes et autres engeances sournoises sont le lot de
Saturne," says Bouche-Leclercq.25 Remarkably enough, Saturn's
animals also include the ass,26 which on that account was rated

15 "Ye have borne Siccuth your king and Chiun your images, the star of your god,
which ye made to yourselves" (RV). Stephen refers to this in his defence (Acts
7 : 43): "And you took unto you the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your
god Rempham." "Rempham" ("Pofupa), is a corruption of Kewan (Chiun).

16 Dozy and de Goeje, "Nouveaux documents pour 1'etude de la religion des
Harraniens," p. 350. 17 Abu Ma'shar, d. 885.

18 Gerhardt, p. 57. Also Pierre dAilly, Concordantia astronomie cum theologia,
etc., fol. g4 (Venice, 1490): "But Saturn, as Messahali says, has a meaning which
concerns the Jewish people or their faith."

19 Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 76.

20 Contra Celsum, VI, 30 (trans, by H. Chadwick, p. 345).

21 Ibid., VI, 31: "But they say that this angel like unto a lion has a necessary
connection with the star Saturn." Cf. Pistis Sophia, trans, by Mead, p. 47, and
Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, pp. 352ft.

22 Hippolytus, Elenchos, V, 7, 30 (Legge trans., I, p. 128).

23 ibid., VII, 38, i (cf. Legge trans., II, p. 96).

24 Hence the image of Saturn worshipped by the Sabaeans was said to be made of
lead or black stone. (Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, II, p. 383.)

25 L'Astrologie grecque, p. 317.

26 Bouche-Leclercq (p. 318) conjectures one of the known classical "etymologies,"
namely an onos (ass) contained in Kronos (Saturn), based on a joke aimed at the

AION

a theriomorphic form of the Jewish god. A pictorial representa-
tion of it is the well-known mock crucifixion on the Palatine.27
Similar traditions can be found in Plutarch,28 Diodorus, Jose-
phus,29 and Tacitus.30 Sabaoth, the seventh archon, has the form
of an ass.31 Tertullian is referring to these rumours when he says:
"You are under the delusion that our God is an ass's head," and
that "we do homage only to an ass." 32 As we have indicated, the
ass is sacred to the Egyptian Set.33 In the early texts, however,
the ass is the attribute of the sun-god and only later became an
emblem of the underworldly Apep and of evil (Set).34
3° According to medieval tradition, the religion of the Jews
originated in a conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn, Islam in
U 6 2 , Christianity in if 6 S , and the Antichrist in U 6 d .35

Megarian philosopher Diodoros. But the reason for the Saturn-ass analogy prob-
ably lies deeper, that is, in the nature of the ass itself, which was regarded as a
"cold, intractable, slow-witted, long-lived animal." (From the Greek bestiary cited
by Bouch£-Leclercq.) In Polemon's bestiary I find the following description of the
wild ass: "Given to flight, timid, stupid, untamed, lustful, jealous, killing its
females" (Scriptores physio gnomici graeci et latini, I, p. 182).
27 A possible model might be the Egyptian tradition of the martyrdom of Set,
depicted at Denderah. He is shown tied to the "slave's post," has an ass's head,
and Horus stands before him with a knife in his hand. (Mariette, Denderah,
plates vol. IV, pi. 56.) 28 Quaestiones convivales, IV, 5.

29 Contra Apionem, II, 7-8 (8off.). (Cf. trans, by H. St. J. Thackeray and R. Mar-
cus, I, pp. 325ff.) 30 The Histories, trans, by W. H. Fyfe, II, pp. 204ff.

31 Epiphanius, Panarium, ed. Oehler, I, p. 184.

32 Apologeticus adversus gentes, XVI (Migne, P.L., vol. 1, cols. 364-65; cf. trans.
by S. Thelwall, I, pp. 84f.).

33 Plutarch, De hide et Osiride, in Moralia, pp. 77, 123. In ch. 31 Plutarch states
that the legend of Set's flight on an ass and of the fathering of his two sons
Hierosolymus and Judaeus is not Egyptian, but pertained to the 'IouSca/cd.

34 in the Papyrus of Ani (ed. E. A. W. Budge, p. 248) a hymn to Ra says: "May
I advance upon the earth; may I smite the Ass; may I crush the evil one (Sebau);
may I destroy Apep in his hour."

35 Albumasar, Lib. II, De magnis coniunctionibus, tract. I, diff. 4, p. a8r (1489): "If
(Jupiter) is in conjunction with Saturn, it signifies that the faith of the citizens
thereof is Judaism. . . . And if the moon is in conjunction with Saturn it sig-
nifies doubt and revolution and change, and this by reason of the speed of the
corruption of the moon and the rapidity of its motion and the shortness of its de-
lay in the sign." Cf. also Pierre d'Ailly, Concordantia, etc., fol. d8r. J. H. Heideg-
ger (Quaestiones ad textum Lucae VII, 12-ij, 1655) says in ch. IX that Abu
Mansor (= Albumasar), in his sixth tractate, in the Introductio maior, connects
the life of Christ, like that of Mahomet, with the stars. Cardan ascribes £ c5 H

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

Unlike Saturn, Jupiter is a beneficent star. In the Iranian view
Jupiter signifies life, Saturn death.36 The conjunction of the
two therefore signifies the union of extreme opposites. In the
year 7 B.a this famed conjunction took place no less than three
times in the sign of the Fishes. The greatest approximation
occurred on May 29 of that year, the planets being only 0.21
degrees apart, less than half the width of the full moon.37 The
conjunction took place in the middle of the commissure, "near
the bend in the line of the Fishes." From the astrological point
of view this conjunction must appear especially significant, be-
cause the approximation of the two planets was exceptionally
large and of an impressive brilliance. In addition, seen helio-
centrically, it took place near the equinoctial point, which at
that time was located between T and X, that is, between fire
and water.38 The conjunction was characterized by the important
fact that Mars was in opposition ( $ <? U *? ), which means, astro-
logically, that the planet correlated with the instincts stood in
a hostile relationship to it, which is peculiarly characteristic of
Christianity. If we accept Gerhardt's calculation that the con-
junction took place on May 29, in the year 7 B.C., then the posi-
tion of the sun— especially important in a man's nativity— at
Christ's birth would be in the double sign of the Twins.39 One

to Christianity, £ <$ T? to Judaism, $ d $ to Islam, and according to
him £ (5 9 signifies idolatry ("Commentarium in Ptolemaeum De astrorum
Judiciis," p. 188).

36 Christensen, Le Premier Homme et le premier roi dans I'histoire legendaire
des Iraniens, part 1, p. 24. 37 Gerhardt, Stern des Messias, p. 74.

38 Calculated on the basis of Peters and Knobel, Ptolemy's Catalogue of Stars.

39 Medieval astrologers cast a number of ideal horoscopes for Christ. Albumasar
and Albertus Magnus took Virgo as the ascendent; Pierre d'Ailly (1356-1420), on
the other hand, took Libra, and so did Cardan. Pierre d'Ailly says: "For Libra
is the human sign, that is, of the Liberator of men, [the sign] of a prudent and
just and spiritual man" (Concordantia, etc., cap. 2). Kepler, in his Discurs von
der grossen Conjunction (1623; p. 701), says that God himself marked "such
great conjunctions as these with extraordinary and marvellous stars visible in
high heaven, also with notable works of his divine Providence." He continues:
"Accordingly he appointed the birth of his Son Christ our Saviour exactly at
the time of the great conjunction in the signs of the Fishes and the Ram, near
the equinoctial point." Seen heliocentrically, the conjunction took place just
in front of the equinoctial point, and this gives it a special significance astro-
logically. Pierre d'Ailly (Concordantia, etc., fol. br) says: "But a great conjunc-
tion is that of Saturn and Jupiter in the beginning of the Ram." These con-

AION

thinks involuntarily of the ancient Egyptian pair of hostile
brothers, Horus and Set, the sacrificer and the sacrificed (cf.
n. 27, on Set's "martyrdom"), who in a sense prefigure the drama
of the Christian myth. In the Egyptian myth it is the evil one
who is sacrificed on the "slave's post." 40 But the pair of brothers
Heru-ur (the "older Horus") and Set are sometimes pictured as
having one body with two heads. The planet Mercury is corre-
lated with Set, and this is interesting in view of the tradition that
Christianity originated in a conjunction of Jupiter with Mer-
cury. In the New Kingdom (XlXth dynasty) Set appears as
Sutech in the Nile delta. In the new capital built by Rameses
II, one district was dedicated to Amon, the other to Sutech.41 It
was here that the Jews were supposed to have done slave-labour.
131 In considering the double aspect of Christ, mention might

be made of the legend of Pistis Sophia (3rd cent.), which also
originated in Egypt. Mary says to Jesus:

When thou wert a child, before the spirit had descended upon thee,
when thou wert in the vineyard with Joseph, the spirit came down
from the height, and came unto me in the house, like unto thee,
and I knew him not, but thought that he was thou. And he said
unto me, "Where is Jesus, my brother, that I may go to meet him?"
And when he had said this unto me, I was in doubt, and thought
it was a phantom tempting me. I seized him and bound him to the
foot of the bed which was in my house, until I had gone to find you
in the field, thee and Joseph; and I found you in the vineyard,
where Joseph was putting up the vine-poles. And it came to pass,
when thou didst hear me saying this thing unto Joseph, that thou
didst understand, and thou wert joyful, and didst say, "Where is

junctions occur every 20 years and take place every 200 years in the same trigon.
But the same position can only recur every 800 years. The most significant posi-
tions are those between two trigons. Albumasar (Be magnis coniunc, tract. 3,
diff. i, fol. D 8r) says they manifest themselves "in changes of parties and offices
and in changes of the laws and ... in the coming of prophets and of prophesy-
ing and of miracles in parties and offices of state."

40 Crucifixion was a well-known punishment for slaves. The Cross with a snake
on it, instead of the Crucified, is often found in medieval times [Psychology and
Alchemy, fig. 217], and also in the dreams and fantasy-images of modern people
who know nothing of this tradition. A characteristic dream of this sort is the
following: The dreamer was watching a Passion play in the theatre. On the way
to Golgotha, the actor taking the part of the Saviour suddenly changed into a
snake or crocodile. 4iErman, Die Religion der Agypter, p. 137.

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

he, that I may see him?" And it came to pass, when Joseph heard
thee say these words, that he was disturbed. We went up together,
entered into the house and found the spirit bound to the bed, and
we gazed upon thee and him, and found that thou wert like unto
him. And he that was bound to the bed was unloosed, he embraced
thee and kissed thee, and thou also didst kiss him, and you became
one.42

l32 It appears from the context of this fragment that Jesus is
the "truth sprouting from the earth," whereas the spirit that
resembled him is "justice [Sikcuoo-wt?] looking down from heaven."
The text says: "Truth is the power which issued from thee when
thou wast in the lower regions of chaos. For this cause thy power
hath said through David, 'Truth hath sprouted out of the
earth,' because thou wert in the lower regions of chaos."43
Jesus, accordingly, is conceived as a double personality, part of
which rises up from the chaos or hyle, while the other part
descends as pneuma from heaven.

'33 One could hardly find the ^vkoKpiv^o-^, or 'discrimination of
the natures' that characterizes the Gnostic Redeemer, exempli-
fied more graphically than in the astrological determination of
time. The astrological statements that were quite possible in
antiquity all point to the prominent double aspect M of the birth
that occurred at this particular moment of time, and one can
understand how plausible was the astrological interpretation of
the Christ-Antichrist myth when it entered into manifestation
at the time of the Gnostics. A fairly old authority, earlier
anyway than the sixth century, which bears striking witness to
the antithetical nature of the Fishes is the Talmud. This says:

Four thousand two hundred and ninety-one years after the Creation
[a.d. 530], the world will be orphaned. There will follow the war of
the tanninim [sea-monsters], the war of Gog and Magog,45 and then

42 Pistis Sophia, Mead trans., pp. n8f., slightly modified.

43 Cf. the fish that Augustine says was "drawn from the deep."

44 In this connection mention should be made of the "Saviour of the twins"
((Twriipes) in Pistis Sophia (Mead trans., pp. 2, 17, and elsewhere).

45 Also mentioned in the Chronique of Tabari (I, ch. 23, p. 67). There Anti-
christ is the king of the Jews, who appears with Gog and Magog. This may be an
allusion to Rev. 20 : 7L: "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall
be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are

AION

the Messianic era; only after seven thousand years will the Holy
One, blessed be He, set up his world anew. R. Abba, the son of
Raba, said, It was taught: after five thousand years.46

The Talmud commentator Solomon ben Isaac, alias Rashi
(1039-1105), remarks that the tanninim are fishes, presumably
basing himself on an older source, since he does not give this
as his own opinion, as he usually does. This remark is important,
firstly because it takes the battle of the fishes as an eschatological
event (like the fight between Behemoth and Leviathan), and
secondly because it is probably the oldest testimony to the anti-
thetical nature of the fishes. From about this period, too— the
eleventh century— comes the apocryphal text of a Johannine
Genesis in which the two fishes are mentioned, this time in un-
mistakably astrological form.46a Both documents fall within the
critical epoch that opened with the second millennium of the
Christian era, about which I shall have more to say in due
course.

in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to
battle" (AV).

Graf von Wackerbarth (Merkwiirdige Geschichte der weltberuhmten Gog
und Magog, p. 19) relates from an English "History of the World," which came
out in German in 1760, that the Arab writers say the "Yajui" were "of more
than ordinary size," whereas the "Majui" were "not more than three spans
high." This story, despite the obscurity of its origins, points to the antithetical
nature of Gog and Magog, who thus form a parallel to the Fishes. Augustine
interprets "the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and
Magog" as, respectively (Gog), tectum, 'roof or 'house,' and (Magog) de tecto,
'he that comes out of the house': "Ut illae sint tectum, ipse de tecto." That is to
say the nations are the house, but the devil dwells in the house and comes out of
it. (City of God, Healey trans., II, p. 286.) On Augustine is based the Com-
pendium theologicae veritatis (Venice, 1492), which was attributed in turn to
Albertus Magnus, Hugh of Strasbourg, and John of Paris. It is our main source
for the Antichrist legend. With reference to Augustine it says (Libell. 7, cap. 11)
that Gog means "occultatio" (concealment), Magog "detectio" (revelation). This
corroborates the antithetical nature of Gog and Magog at least for the Middle
Ages. It is another instance of the motif of the hostile brothers, or of duplication.
Albumasar (tract. 4, diff. 12, f. 8r) calls the sixth "clima" (inclination towards the
Pole) that of Gog and Magog, and correlates it with Gemini and Virgo.
MNezikin VI, Sanhedrin II (BT, p. 658). R. Hanan ben Tahlifa, into whose
mouth this prophecy is put, is mentioned in the list of Amoraim (teachers of
the Talmud) and lived in the 2nd cent. a.d. 46a Cf. infra, pars. 225ft.

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

134 The year 531 is characterized astronomically by a conjunc-
tion of U and ^> in Gemini. This sign stands for a pair of
brothers, and they too have a somewhat antithetical nature. The
Greeks interpreted them as the Dioscuri ('boys of Zeus'), the
sons of Leda who were begotten by the swan and hatched out
of an egg. Pollux was immortal, but Castor shared the human
lot. Another interpretation takes them as representing Apollo
and Heracles or Apollo and Dionysus. Both interpretations sug-
gest a certain polarity. Astronomically, at any rate, the air sign
Gemini stands in a quartile and therefore unfavourable aspect
to the conjunction that took place in the year 7 b.c. The inner
polarity of X may perhaps shed light on the prophecy about the
war of the tanninim, which Rashi interprets as fishes. From the
dating of Christ's birth it would appear, as said, that the sun
was in Gemini. The motif of the brothers is found very early
in connection with Christ, for instance among the Jewish Chris-
tians and Ebionites.47

135 From all this we may risk the conjecture that the Talmudic
prophecy was based on astrological premises.

136 The precession of the equinoxes was a fact well known to
the astrologers of antiquity. Origen, helped out by the observa-
tions and calculations of Hipparchus,48 uses it as a cogent argu-
ment against an astrology based on the so-called "morphomata"
(the actual constellations).49 Naturally this does not apply to the
distinction already drawn in ancient astrology between the
morphomata and the £coSia vo-qra (the fictive signs of the zodiac).50
If we take the 7,000 years mentioned in the prophecy as anno
mundi 7000, the year denoted would be a.d. 3239. By then the

47 Epiphanius, Panarium, XXX (Oehler edn., I, pp. 24off.).

48 Hipparchus is supposed to have discovered the precession. Cf. Boll, Sphaera,
p. 199, n. 1.

4© Origen, Commentaria in Genesim, torn. Ill, i, 14, 11 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12,
col. 79): "There is indeed a theory that the zodiacal circle, just like the planets,
is carried back from setting to rising [or: from west to east], within a century by
one degree; . . . since the twelfth part [1 zodion] is one thing when conceived in
the mind, another when perceived by the senses; yet from thut which is conceived
only in the mind, and can scarcely, or not even scarcely, be held for certain, the
truth of the matter appears." The Platonic year was then reckoned as 36,000
years. Tycho Brahe reckoned it at 24,120 years. The constant for the precession
is 50.3708 seconds and the total cycle (3600) takes 25,725.6 years.
60 Bouch£-Leclercq, p. 591, n. 2; Knapp, Antiskia; Boll, Sphaera.

AION

spring-point will have moved from its present position 18 de-
grees into Aquarius, the next aeon, that of the Water Carrier.
As an astrologer of the second or third century would be
acquainted with the precession, we may surmise that these dates
were based on astrological considerations. At all events the Mid-
dle Ages were much concerned with the calculation of coniunc-
tiones maximae and magnae, as we know from Pierre d'Ailly
and Cardan.51 Pierre d'Ailly reckoned that the first coniunctio
maxima (U 6 ^ in T) after the creation of the world took
place in 5027 B.C., while Cardan relegated the tenth conjunction
to a.d. 3613.52 Both of them assumed the lapse of too large an
interval between conjunctions in the same sign. The correct
astronomical interval is about 795 years. Cardan's conjunction
would accordingly take place in the year a.d. 3234. For astro-
logical speculation this date is naturally of the greatest impor-
tance.
l37 As to the 5,000 years, the date we get is a.d. 1 239. This was an
epoch noted for its spiritual instability, revolutionary heresies
and chiliastic expectations, and at the same time it saw the
founding of the mendicant orders, which injected new life into
monasticism. One of the most powerful and influential voices
to announce the coming of a "new age of the spirit" was Joachim
of Flora (d. 1202), whose teachings were condemned by the
Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. He expected the opening of
the seventh seal in the fairly near future, the advent of the
"everlasting gospel" and the reign of the "intellectus spiritu-
alis," the age of the Holy Ghost. This third aeon, he says, had
already begun with St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine
Order (the first monastery was supposed to have been built a
few years after 529). One of Joachim's followers, the Franciscan
friar Gerard of Borgo San Donnino, proclaimed in his Intro-
ductorius in evangelium aeternum, which appeared in 1254 in
Paris, that Joachim's three main treatises were in fact the ever-
lasting gospel, and that in the year 1260 this would replace the

51 The theory of the conjunctions was set down in writing by the Arabs about
the middle of the 9th cent., more particularly by Messahala. Cf. Strauss, Die
Astrologie des Johannes Kepler.

52 With his estimate of 960 years between two coniunctiones maximae, Pierre
d'Ailly would also arrive at a.d. 3613.

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

gospel of Jesus Christ.53 As we know, Joachim saw monasticism as
the true vehicle of the Holy Ghost and for this reason he dated
the secret inception of the new era from the lifetime of St. Bene-
dict, whose founding of the Benedictine Order revived monas-
ticism in the West.

To Pierre d'Ailly the time of Pope Innocent III ( 1 1 98-1 2 1 6)
had already seemed significant. About the year 1 189, he says, the
revolutions of Saturn were once again completed ("completae
anno Christi 1 189 vel circiter"). He complains that the Pope had
condemned a treatise of Abbot Joachim,54 and also the heretical
doctrine of Almaricus.55 This last is the theological philosopher
Amalric of Bene (d. 1204), who took part in the widespread
Holy Ghost movement of that age. It was then, too, he says, that
the Dominican and Franciscan mendicant orders came into
existence, "which was a great and wonderful thing for the Chris-
tian church." Pierre d'Ailly thus lays stress on the same phe-
nomena that struck us as being characteristic of the time, and
further regards this epoch as having been foretold in astrology.

The date for the founding of the monastery of Monte Cas-
sino brings us very close to the year 530, which the Talmud
prophesied would be a critical one. In Joachim's view not only
does a new era begin then, but a new "status" of the world— the
age of monasticism and the reign of the Holy Ghost. Its begin-
ning still comes within the domain of the Son, but Joachim sur-
mises in a psychologically correct manner that a new status—
or, as we would say, a new attitude— would appear first as a more
or less latent preliminary stage, which would then be followed
by the fructification the flower and the fruit. In Joachim's day
the fruition was still in abeyance, but one could observe far and
wide an uncommon agitation and commotion of men's spirits.
Everyone felt the rushing wind of the pneuma; it was an age of
new and unprecedented ideas which were blazoned abroad by
the Cathari, Patarenes, Concorricci, Waldenses, Poor Men of

53 This period around the year 1240 would, from the astrological standpoint, be
characterized by the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Libra, in 1246.
Libra is another double sign with a pneumatic nature (air trigon), like Gemini,
and for this reason it was taken by Pierre d'Ailly as Christ's ascendent.

54 At the Lateran Council, 1215. Cf. Denzinger and Bannwart, Enchiridion sym-
bolorum, pp. io,off.

55 "His teaching is to be held not so much heretical as insane," says the decree.

AION

Lyons, Beghards, Brethren of the Free Spirit, "Bread through
God," 56 and whatever else these movements were called. Their
visible beginnings all lay in the early years of the eleventh cen-
tury. The contemporary documents amassed by Hahn throw a
revealing light on the ideas current in these circles:

Item, they believe themselves to be God by nature without dis-
tinction . . . and that they are eternal. . . .

Item, that they have no need of God or the Godhead.

Item, that they constitute the kingdom of heaven.

Item, that they are immutable in the new rock, that they rejoice
in naught and are troubled by naught.

Item, that a man is bound to follow his inner instinct rather
than the truth of the Gospel which is preached every day. . . .
They say that they believe the Gospel to contain poetical matters
which are not true.57

l4° These few examples may suffice to show what kind of spirit
animated these movements. They were made up of people who
identified themselves (or were identified) with God, who deemed
themselves supermen, had a critical approach to the gospels, fol-
lowed the promptings of the inner man, and understood the
kingdom of heaven to be within. In a sense, therefore, they were
modern in their outlook, but they had a religious inflation
instead of the rationalistic and political psychosis that is the
affliction of our day. We ought not to impute these extremist
ideas to Joachim, even though he took part in that great move-
ment of the spirit and was one of its outstanding figures. One
must ask oneself what psychological impulse could have moved

56 Hahn, Geschichte der Ketzer im Mittelalter, II, p. 779: ". . . some who under
the name of a false and pretended religious order, whom the common folk
call Beghards and Schwestrones or 'Brod durch Gott'; but they call themselves
Little Brethren and Sisters of the fellowship of the Free Spirit and of Voluntary
Poverty."

57 "Item credunt se esse Deum per naturam sine distinctione . . . se esse
aeternos . . .

"Item quod nullo indigent nee Deo nee Deitate.

"Item quod sunt ipsum regnum coelorum.

"Item quod sunt etiam immutabiles in nova rupe, quod de nullo gaudent, et
de nullo turbantur.

"Item quod homo magis tenetur sequi instinctum interiorem quam veritatero
Evangelii quod cottidie praedicatur . . . dicunt, se credere ibi (in Evangelio)
esse poetica quae non sunt vera." (Hahn, II, pp. 77gf.)

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

him and his adherents to cherish such bold expectations as the
substitution of the "everlasting gospel" for the Christian mes-
sage or the supersession of the second Person in the Godhead by
the third, who would reign over the new era. This thought is so
heretical and subversive that it could never have occurred to him
had he not felt himself supported and swept along by the revolu-
tionary currents of the age. He felt it as a revelation of the Holy
Ghost, whose life and procreative power no church could bring
to a stop. The numinosity of this feeling was heightened by the
temporal coincidence— "synchronicity"— of the epoch he lived
in with the beginning of the sphere of the "antichristian" fish in
Pisces. In consequence, one might feel tempted to regard the
Holy Ghost movement and Joachim's central ideas as a direct
expression of the antichristian psychology that was then dawn-
ing. At any rate the Church's condemnation is thoroughly under-
standable, for in many ways his attitude to the Church of Jesus
Christ comes very close to open insurrection, if not downright
apostasy. But if we allow some credence to the conviction of these
innovators that they were moved by the Holy Ghost, then an-
other interpretation becomes not only possible but even prob-
able.

That is to say, just as Joachim supposed that the status of
the Holy Ghost had secretly begun with St. Benedict, so we
might hazard the conjecture that a new status was secretly
anticipated in Joachim himself. Consciously, of course, he
thought he was bringing the status of the Holy Ghost into
reality, just as it is certain that St. Benedict had nothing else in
mind than to put the Church on a firm footing and deepen the
meaning of the Christian life through monasticism. But, uncon-
sciously—and this is psychologically what probably happened—
Joachim could have been seized by the archetype of the spirit.
There is no doubt that his activities were founded on a numi-
nous experience, which is, indeed, characteristic of all those who
are gripped by an archetype. He understood the spirit in the
dogmatic sense as the third Person of the Godhead, for no other
way was possible, but not in the sense of the empirical arche-
type. This archetype is not of uniform meaning, but was orig-
inally an ambivalent dualistic figure 58 that broke through again

68 Cf. "The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales," pars. 3g6ff.

AION

in the alchemical concept of spirit after engendering the most
contradictory manifestations within the Holy Ghost movement
itself. The Gnostics in their day had already had clear inti-
mations of this dualistic figure. It was therefore very natural,
in an age which coincided with the beginning of the second Fish
and which was, so to speak, forced into ambiguity, that an
espousal of the Holy Ghost in its Christian form should at the
same time help the archetype of the spirit to break through in
all its characteristic ambivalence. It would be unjust to class so
worthy a personage as Joachim with the bigoted advocates of
that revolutionary and anarchic turbulence, which is what the
Holy Ghost movement turned into in so many places. We must
suppose, rather, that he himself unwittingly ushered in a new
"status," a religious attitude that was destined to bridge and
compensate the frightful gulf that had opened out between
Christ and Antichrist in the eleventh century. The antichristian
era is to blame that the spirit became non-spiritual and that the
vitalizing archetype gradually degenerated into rationalism,
intellectualism, and doctrinairism, all of which leads straight to
the tragedy of modern times now hanging over our heads like a
sword of Damocles. In the old formula for the Trinity, as
Joachim knew it, the dogmatic figure of the devil is lacking,
for then as now he led a questionable existence somewhere on
the fringes of theological metaphysics, in the shape of the mys-
terium iniquitatis. Fortunately for us, the threat of his coming
had already been foretold in the New Testament— for the less
he is recognized the more dangerous he is. Who would suspect
him under those high-sounding names of his, such as public
welfare, lifelong security, peace among the nations, etc.? He
hides under idealisms, under -isms in general, and of these the
most pernicious is doctrinairism, that most unspiritual of all
the spirit's manifestations. The present age must come to terms
drastically with the facts as they are, with the absolute opposition
that is not only tearing the world asunder politically but has
planted a schism in the human heart. We need to find our way
back to the original, living spirit which, berause of its ambiva-
lence, is also a mediator and uniter of opposites,59 an idea that
preoccupied the alchemists for many centuries.

59 "The Spirit Mercurius," pars. 284ft:., and "A Psychological Approach to the
Dogma of the Trinity," pars. 257ft.

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

l42 If, as seems probable, the aeon of the fishes is ruled by the
archetypal motif of the hostile brothers, then the approach of
the next Platonic month, namely Aquarius, will constellate the
problem of the union of opposites. It will then no longer be
possible to write off evil as the mere privation of good; its real
existence will have to be recognized. This problem can be
solved neither by philosophy, nor by economics, nor by politics,
but only by the individual human being, via his experience of
the living spirit, whose fire descended upon Joachim, one of
many, and, despite all contemporary misunderstandings, was
handed onward into the future. The solemn proclamation of
the Assumptio Mariae which we have experienced in our own
day is an example of the way symbols develop through the ages.
The impelling motive behind it did not come from the ecclesi-
astical authorities, who had given clear proof of their hesitation
by postponing the declaration for nearly a hundred years,60 but
from the Catholic masses, who have insisted more and more
vehemently on this development. Their insistence is, at bottom,
the urge of the archetype to realize itself.61

43 The repercussions of the Holy Ghost movement spread, in
the years that followed, to four minds of immense significance
for the future. These were Albertus Magnus (1193-1280); his
pupil Thomas Aquinas, the philosopher of the Church and an
adept in alchemy (as also was Albertus); Roger Bacon (c. 1214-c.
1294), the English forerunner of inductive science; and finally
Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327), the independent religious
thinker, now enjoying a real revival after six hundred years of
obscurity. Some people have rightly seen the Holy Ghost move-
ment as the forerunner of the Reformation. At about the time
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries we find also the begin-
nings of Latin alchemy, whose philosophical and spiritual con-
tent I have tried to elucidate in my book Psychology and Al-
chemy. The image mentioned above (par. 139) of "immutability
in the new rock" bears a striking resemblance to the central idea
of philosophical alchemy, the lapis philosophorum, which is
used as a parallel to Christ, the "rock," the "stone," the "corner-

60 [Although Mary's Immaculate Conception was declared de fide by Pope
Pius IX in 1854, by the bull Ineffabilis Deus, her Assumption was not defined as
part of divine revelation until 1950.— Editors.]

61 fCf. "Psychology and Religion," par. 122, and "Answer to Job," pars. 748ft ]

AION

stone." Priscillian (4th cent.) says: "We have Christ for a rock,
Jesus for a cornerstone." 62 An alchemical text speaks of the
"rock which is smitten thrice with Moses' rod, so that the waters
flow forth freely." 63 The lapis is called a "sacred rock" and is
described as having four parts.64 St. Ambrose says the water
from the rock is a prefiguration of the blood that flowed from
Christ's side.65 Another alchemical text mentions the "water
from the rock" as the equivalent of the universal solvent, the
aqua permanens.QQ Khunrath, in his somewhat florid language,
even speaks of the "Petroleum sapientum." 67 By the Naassenes,
Adam was called the "rock" and the "cornerstone."68 Both
these allegories of Christ are mentioned by Epiphanius in his
Ancoratus, and also by Firmicus Maternus.69 This image, com-
mon to ecclesiastical and alchemical language alike, goes back to
I Corinthians 10 : 4 and I Peter 2 : 4.
l44 The new rock, then, takes the place of Christ, just as the
everlasting gospel was meant to take the place of Christ's mes-
sage. Through the descent and indwelling of the Holy Ghost
the vloTijs, sonship, is infused into every individual, so that
everybody who possesses the Holy Ghost will be a new rock, in
accordance with I Peter 2:5: "Be you also as living stones built
up." 70 This is a logical development of the teaching about the

62 Opera, ed. G. Schepps, p. 24.

63 Cf. Aurora Consurgens (ed. von Franz), p. 127: "this great and wide sea smote
the rock and the metallic waters flowed forth."

64 Musaeum hermeticum (1678), p. 212: "Our stone is called the sacred rock, and
is understood or signified in four ways." Cf. Ephesians 3:18. The Pyramid Text
of Pepi I mentions a god of resurrection with four faces: "Homage to thee, O
thou who hast four faces. . . . Thou art endowed with a soul, and thou dost
rise (like the sun) in thy boat . . . carry thou this Pepi with thee in the cabin
of thy boat, for this Pepi is the son of the Scarab." (Budge, Gods of the Egyptians,
I, p. 85.)

65 Explanationes in Psalmos, XXXVIII: "In the shadow there was water from
the rock, as it were the blood of Christ."

66 Mylius, Philosophia reformata (1622), p. 112: "Whence the philosopher brought
forth water from the rock and oil out of the flinty stone."

67 Von hylealischen Chaos (1597), p. 272.

68 Hippolytus, Elenchos, V, 7, 34I (Legge trans., I, p. 129). Reference is also
made here to the "stone cut from the mountain without hands" (Daniel 2 : 45),
a metaphor used by the alchemists.

69 De errore projanarum religionum, 20, 1.

70 Cf. the building of the seamless tower (church) with "living stones" in the
"Shepherd" of Hermas.

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

Paraclete and the filiation, as stated in Luke 6 : 35: "You shall
be sons of the Highest," and John 10 : 34: "Is it not written in
your law: I said, you are gods?" The Naassenes, as we know, had
already made use of these allusions and thus anticipated a
whole tract of historical development— a development that led
via monasticism to the Holy Ghost movement, via the The-
ologia Germanica direct to Luther, and via alchemy to modern
science.

l45 Let us now turn back to the theme of Christ as the fish. Ac-
cording to Doelger, the Christian fish symbol first appeared in
Alexandria around a.d. 200; 71 similarly, the baptismal bath was
described as a piscina (fish-pond) quite early. This presupposes
that the believers were fishes, as is in fact suggested by the gos-
pels (for instance Matt. 4 : 19). There Christ wants to make
Peter and Andrew "fishers of men," and the miraculous draught
of fishes (Luke 5 : 10) is used by Christ himself as a paradigm
for Peter's missionary activity.

46 A direct astrological aspect of Christ's birth is given us in
Matthew 2 : iff. The Magi from the East were star-gazers who,
beholding an extraordinary constellation, inferred an equally
extraordinary birth. This anecdote proves that Christ, possibly
even at the time of the apostles, was viewed from the astro-
logical standpoint or was at least brought into connection with

71 Doelger, IX8T2: Das Fischsymbol, I, p. 18. Though the Abercius inscription,
which dates from the beginning of the 3rd cent, (after a.d. 216), is of importance
in this connection, it is of doubtful Christian origin. Dieterich (Die Grabschrift
des Aberkios), in the course of a brilliant argument, demonstrates that the "holy
shepherd" mentioned in the inscription is Attis, the Lord of the sacred Ram
and the thousand-eyed shepherd of glittering stars. One of his special forms
was Elogabal of Emera, the god of the emperor Heliogabalus, who caused the
hieros gamos of his god to be celebrated with Urania of Carthage, also called
Virgo coelestis. Heliogabalus was a gallus (priest) of the Great Mother, whose
fish only the priests might eat. The fish had to be caught by a virgin. It is con-
jectured that Abercius had this inscription written in commemoration of his
journey to Rome to the great hieros gamos, sometime after a.d. 216. For the same
reasons there are doubts about the Christianity of the Pectorios inscription at
Autun, in which the fish figures too: *'E(T0ie irv . . . , ixOvv lxtj3V iraXa/xcus
'Ix&vi x°PTa% &Pa XtXat'w Seo-Trora awrep'. "Eat . . . (reading uncertain), holding
the fish in the hands. Nourish now with the fish, I yearn, Lord Saviour." Prob-
able reading: mvawv instead of ireivawv. Cf. Cabrol and Leclercq, Dictionnaire
d'archeologie chretienne, XIII, cols. 2884ff., "Pectorios." The first three distichs
of the inscription make the acrostic Ichthys. Dating is uncertain (3rd~5th cent.).
Cf. Doelger, I, pp. i2ff.

AION

astrological myths. The latter alternative is fully confirmed
when we consider the apocalyptic utterances of St. John. Since
this exceedingly complex question has been discussed by those
who are more qualified than I, we can support our argument
on the well-attested fact that glimpses of astrological mythology
may be caught behind the stories of the worldly and other-
worldly life of the Redeemer.72
HI Above all it is the connections with the age of the Fishes
which are attested by the fish symbolism, either contemporane-
ously with the gospels themselves (''fishers of men," fishermen
as the first disciples, miracle of loaves and fishes), or immedi-
ately afterwards in the post-apostolic era. The symbolism shows
Christ and those who believe in him as fishes, fish as the food
eaten at the Agape,73 baptism as immersion in a fish-pond, etc.
At first sight, all this points to no more than the fact that the
fish symbols and mythologems which have always existed had
assimilated the figure of the Redeemer; in other words, it was
a symptom of Christ's assimilation into the world of ideas pre-
vailing at that time. But, to the extent that Christ was regarded
as the new aeon, it would be clear to anyone acquainted with
astrology that he was born as the first fish of the Pisces era, and
was doomed to die as the last ram 74 (apvLov, lamb) of the declining
Aries era.75 Matthew 27 : 15ft. hands down this mythologem in

72 1 refer particularly to Boll, Aus der Offenbarung Johannis. The writings of
Arthur Drews have treated the astrological parallels with— one can well say—
monomaniacal thoroughness, not altogether to the advantage of this idea. See
Der Sternenhimmel in der Dichiung und Religion der alten Volker und des
Christentums.

73 Religious meal. According to Tertullian (Adversus Marcionem, I, cap. XIV;
Migne, P.L., vol. 2, col. 262) the fish signifies "the holier food." Cf. also Gooden-
ough, Jewish Symbols, V, pp. 41ft.

74 0rigen, In Genesim horn. VIII, 9 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12, col. 208): "We said
. . . that Isaac bore the form of Christ, but that the ram also seems no less to
bear the form of Christ." Augustine (City of God, XVI, 32, 1) asks: "Who was
that ram by the offering whereof was made a complete sacrifice in typical
blood . . . who was prefigured thereby but Jesus . . . ?" For the Lamb as
Aries in the Apocalypse see Boll, Aus der Offenbarung Johannis.

75Eisler, Orpheus— The Fisher, pp. 5 iff. There is also a wealth of material in
Eisler's paper "Der Fisch als Sexualsymbol," though it contains little that would
help to interpret the fish-symbol, since the question puts the cart before the
horse. It has long been known that all the instinctual forces of the psyche are in-
volved in the formation of symbolic images, hence sexuality as well. Sex is not

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

the form of the old sacrifice of the seasonal god. Significantly
enough, Jesus's partner in the ceremony is called Barabbas, "son
of the father." There would be some justification for drawing
a parallel between the tension of opposites in early Christian
psychology and the fact the zodiacal sign for Pisces (K) fre-
quently shows two fishes moving in opposite directions, but
only if it could be proved that their contrary movement dates
from pre-Christian times or is at least contemporary with Christ.
Unfortunately, I know of no pictorial representation from this
period that would give us any information about the position of
the fishes. In the fine bas-relief of the zodia from the Little
Metropolis in Athens, Pisces and Aquarius are missing. There
is one representation of the fishes, near the beginning of our
era, that is certainly free from Christian influence. This is the
globe of the heavens from the Farnese Atlas in Naples. The first
fish, depicted north of the equator, is vertical, with its head
pointing to the celestial Pole; the second fish, south of the
equator, is horizontal, with its head pointing West. The picture
follows the astronomical configuration and is therefore natural-
istic.76 The zodiac from the temple of Hathor at Denderah (ist
cent, b.c.) shows the fishes, but they both face the same way. The
planisphere of Timochares,77 mentioned by Hipparchus, has
only one fish where Pisces should be. On coins and gems from
the time of the emperors, and also on Mithraic monuments,78
the fishes are shown either facing the same way or moving
in opposite directions.79 The polarity which the fishes later
acquired may perhaps be due to the fact that the astronomical
constellation shows the first (northerly) fish as vertical, and the
second (southerly) fish as horizontal. They move almost at right

"symbolized" in these images, but leaps to the eye, as Eisler's material clearly
shows. In whatsoever a man is involved, there his sexuality will appear too. The
indubitably correct statement that St. Peter's is made of stone, wood, and metal
hardly helps us to interpret its meaning, and the same is true of the fish symbol
if one continues to be astonished that this image, like all others, has its manifest
sexual components. With regard to the terminology, it should be noted that
something known is never "symbolized," but can only be expressed allegorically
or semiotically . 76 Thiele, Antike Himmelsbilder, p. 29.

77 Boll, Sphaera, PL I, and Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology, PL 5, following
p. 164. 78 Gaedechens, Der Marmorne Himmels globus.

79 Cumont, Textes et monuments, II.

AION

angles to one another and hence form a cross. This counter-
movement, which was unknown to the majority of the oldest
sources, was much emphasized in Christian times, and this leads
one to suspect a certain tendentiousness.80
»48 Although no connection of any kind can be proved be-
tween the figure of Christ and the inception of the astrological
age of the fishes, the simultaneity of the fish symbolism of the
Redeemer with the astrological symbol of the new aeon seems
to me important enough to warrant the emphasis we place upon
it. If we try to follow up the complicated mythological ramifica-
tions of this parallel, we do so with intent to throw light on the
multifarious aspects of an archetype that manifests itself on the
one hand in a personality, and on the other hand synchro-
nistically, in a moment of time determined in advance, before
Christ's birth. Indeed, long before that, the archetype had been
written in the heavens by projection, so as then, "when the time
was fulfilled," to coincide with the symbols produced by the
new era. The fish, appropriately enough, belongs to the winter
rainy season, like Aquarius and Capricorn (atyoKepw?, the goat-
fish).81 As a zodiacal sign, therefore, it is not in the least remark-
able. It becomes a matter for astonishment only when, through
the precession of the equinoxes, the spring-point moves into this
sign and thus inaugurates an age in which the "fish" was used
as a name for the God who became a man, who was born as a
fish and was sacrificed as a ram, who had fishermen for disciples
and wanted to make them fishers of men, who fed the multitude
with miraculously multiplying fishes, who was himself eaten as a
fish, the "holier food," and whose followers are little fishes, the
"pisciculi." Assume, if you like, that a fairly widespread knowl-
edge of astrology would account for at least some of this sym-

80 See the two fishes in Lambspringk's symbols (Mus. herm., p. 343), represent-
ing at the same time the opposites to be united. Aratus (Phaenomena, Mair
trans., p. 401) mentions only the higher position of the northern fish as com-
pared with the southern one, without emphasizing their duality or opposition.
Their double character is, however, stressed in modern astrological speculation.
(E. M. Smith, The Zodia, p. 279.) Senard (Le Zodiaque, p. 446) says: "The fish
. . . swimming from above downwards symbolizes the movement of involution
of Spirit in Matter; that . . . which swims from below upwards, the movement
of evolution of the Spirit-Matter composite returning to its Unique Principle."

81 Capricorn V3 or 3.

THE SIGN OF THE FISHES

bolism in certain Gnostic-Christian circles.82 But this assump-
tion does not apply when it comes to eyewitness accounts in
the synoptic gospels. There is no evidence of any such thing. We
have no reason whatever to suppose that those stories are dis-
guised astrological myths. On the contrary, one gets the impres-
sion that the fish episodes are entirely natural happenings and
that there is nothing further to be looked for behind them.
They are "Just So" stories, quite simple and natural, and one
wonders whether the whole Christian fish symbolism may not
have come about equally fortuitously and without premedita-
tion. Hence one could speak just as well of the seemingly for-
tuitous coincidence of this symbolism with the name of the new
aeon, the more so as the age of the fishes seems to have left no
very clear traces in the cultures of the East. I could not main-
tain with any certainty that this is correct, because I know far
too little about Indian and Chinese astrology. As against this,
the fact that the traditional fish symbolism makes possible a
verifiable prediction that had already been made in the New
Testament is a somewhat uncomfortable proposition to swallow.
The northerly, or easterly, fish, which the spring-point
entered at about the beginning of our era,83 is joined to the
southerly, or westerly, fish by the so-called commissure. This
consists of a band of faint stars forming the middle sector of the
constellation, and the spring-point gradually moved along its
southern edge. The point where the ecliptic intersects with the
meridian at the tail of the second fish coincides roughly with the
sixteenth century, the time of the Reformation, which as we
know is so extraordinarily important for the history of Western
symbols. Since then the spring-point has moved along the south-
ern edge of the second fish, and will enter Aquarius in the

82 A clear reference to astrology can be found in Pistis Sophia, where Jesus con-
verses with the "ordainers of the nativity": "But Jesus answered and said to
Mary: If the ordainers of the nativity find Heimarmene and the Sphere turned
to the left in accordance with their first circulation, then their words will be
true, and they will say what must come to pass. But if they find Heimarmene or
the Sphere turned to the right, then they will not say anything true, because
I have changed their influences and their squares and their triangles and their
octants." (Cf. Mead trans., p. 29.)

83 The meridian of the star "O" in the commissure passed through the spring-
point in a.d. n, and that of the star "a 113" in 146 B.C. Calculated on the basis
of Peters and Knobel, Ptolemy's Catalogue of Stars.

AION

course of the third millennium.84 Astrologically interpreted, the
designation of Christ as one of the fishes identifies him with the
first fish, the vertical one. Christ is followed by the Antichrist, at
the end of time. The beginning of the enantiodromia would fall,
logically, midway between the two fishes. We have seen that
this is so. The time of the Renaissance begins in the immediate
vicinity of the second fish, and with it comes that spirit which
culminates in the modern age.85

84 Since the delimitation of the constellations is known to be somewhat arbitrary,
this date is very indefinite. It refers to the actual constellation of fixed stars,
not to the zodion noeton, i.e., the zodiac divided into sectors of 300 each. Astro-
logically the beginning of the next aeon, according to the starting-point you
select, falls between a.d. 2000 and 2200. Starting from star "O" and assuming
a Platonic month of 2,143 years, one would arrive at a.d. 2154 for the beginning
of the Aquarian Age, and at a.d. 1997 if you start from star "a 113." The latter
date agrees with the longitude of the stars in Ptolemy's Almagest.

85 Modern astrological speculation likewise associates the Fishes with Christ: "The
fishes . . . the inhabitants of the waters, are fitly an emblem of those whose
life being hid with Christ in God, come out of the waters of judgment without
being destroyed [an allusion to the fishes which were not drowned in the
Deluge!— C.G.J. ] and shall find their true sphere where life abounds and death
is not: where, for ever surrounded with the living water and drinking from its
fountain, they 'shall not perish, but have everlasting life.' . . . Those who shall
dwell for ever in the living water are one with Jesus Christ the Son of God,
the Living One." (Smith, The Zodia, pp. 28of.)

VIT

THE PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS

l5° The course of our religious history as well as an essential
part of our psychic development could have been predicted
more or less accurately, both as regards time and content, from
the precession of the equinoxes through the constellation of
Pisces. The prediction, as we saw, was actually made and coin-
cides with the fact that the Church suffered a schism in the six-
teenth century. After that an enantiodromian process set in
which, in contrast to the "Gothic" striving upwards to the
heights, could be described as a horizontal movement outwards,
namely the voyages of discovery and the conquest of Nature.
The vertical was cut across by the horizontal, and man's spiritual
and moral development moved in a direction that grew more
and more obviously antichristian, so that today we are con-
fronted with a crisis of Western civilization whose outcome
appears to be exceedingly dubious.

'51 With this background in mind, I would like to mention the
astrological prophecies of Nostradamus, written in a letter1 to
Henry II of France, on June 27, 1558. After detailing a year
characterized, among other things, by U 6 V with $ □ £ ,2
he says:

1 Printed in the Amsterdam edition of the Vrayes Centuries et Propheties de
Maistre Michel Nostredame (1667), PP- 9^-

2 According to the old tradition the conjunction of Jupiter and Mercury, as
mentioned above, is characteristic of Christianity. The quartile aspect between
Mercury and Mars "injures" Mercury by "martial" violence. According to
Cardan, $ £ $ signifies "the law of Mahomet" (Comment, in Ptol., p. 188).
This aspect could therefore indicate an attack by Islam. Albumasar regards
IX c5 $ in the same way: "And if Mars shall be in conjunction with him
(Jupiter), it signifies the fiery civilization and the pagan faith" (De magn. con-
iunct., tract. I, cliff. 4, p. a8r). On the analogy of history the evil events to come
are ascribed to the crescent moon, but one never reflects that the opponent of
Christianity dwells in the European unconscious. History repeats itself.

AION

Then the beginning of that year shall see a greater persecution
against the Christian Church than ever was in Africa,3 and it shall
be in the year 1792, at which time everyone will think it a renova-
tion of the age. . . . And at that time and in those countries the
infernal power shall rise against the Church of Jesus Christ. This
shall be the second Antichrist, which shall persecute the said Church
and its true vicar by means of the power of temporal kings, who
through their ignorance shall be seduced by tongues more sharp
than any sword in the hands of a madman. . . . The persecution
of the clergy shall have its beginning in the power of the Northern
Kings joined by the Eastern ones. And that persecution shall last
eleven years, or a little less, at which time the chief Northern king
shall fail.4

»52 However, Nostradamus thinks that "a united Southern king"
will outlast the Northern one by three years. He sees a return
of paganism ("the sanctuary destroyed by paganism"), the Bible
will be burned, and an immense blood-bath will take place: "So
great tribulations as ever did happen since the first foundation
of the Christian Church." All Latin countries will be affected
by it.

»53 There are historical determinants that may have moved
Nostradamus to give the year 1792 as the beginning of the new
aeon. For instance, Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, basing himself on
Albumasar, writes in his Concordantia 5 on the eighth coniunc-
tio maxima (U 6 ^ in t), which had been calculated for 1693:

And after that shall be the fulfilment of ten revolutions of Saturn
in the year 1789, and this will happen after the said conjunction,
in the course of ninety-seven years or thereabouts. . . . This being
so, we say that if the world shall endure until then, which God
alone knows, then there will be many and great and marvellous
changes and transformations of the world, especially as concerns
law-giving and religious sects, for the said conjunction and the
revolutions of Saturn will coincide with the revolution or reversal
of the upper orb, i.e., the eighth sphere, and from these and other
premises the change of sects will be known. . . . Whence it may

3 Where Roman Christendom succumbed to Islam.

4 The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus, trans, and ed. by H. C. Roberts,
pp. 23 iff.

5 D 7V to 8r, div. 2, cap. 60 and 61. Cf. also Thorndike, A History of Magic and
Experimental Science, IV, p. 102.

THE PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS

be concluded with some probability that this is the time when the
Antichrist shall come with his law and his damnable sects, which
are utterly contrary and inimical to the law of Christ; for, being
human, we can have no certainty with regard to the time and the
moment of his coming. , . . Yet, despite the indeterminate state-
ment that he will come at approximately that time, it is possible to
have a probable conjecture and a credible hypothesis in accordance
with the astronomical indications. If, therefore, the astronomers
say that a change of sects will occur about that time, then, according
to them, a Mighty One will come after Mahomet, who will set up an
evil and magical law. Thus we may surmise with credible prob-
ability that after the sect of Mahomet none other will come save
the law of the Antichrist.6

l54 In connection with the calculation of the year 1693, Pierre
d'Ailly quotes Albumasar as saying that the first coniunctio
maxima of Saturn and Jupiter took place anno mundi 3200. To
this Albumasar added 960 years, which brings us to a.d. 1693 as
the year of the eighth coniunctio maxima.1 In Part III of his
book, chapter 17, Pierre d'Ailly criticizes this view and calls it a
"false deduction." In his treatise against "superstitiosos astrono-
mos," 1410, he maintains that the Christian religion should not
be brought under astrological laws. He was alluding in particu-
lar to Roger Bacon, who had revived the theory that Christianity
was under the influence of the planet Mercury. Pierre d'Ailly

6 "Et post illam erit complementura 10 revolutionum saturnalium anno Christi
1789 et hoc erit post dictam coniunctionem per annos 97 vel prope. . . . His
itaque praesuppositis dicimus quod si mundus usque ad ilia tempora duraverit,
quod solus deus novit, multae tunc et magnae et mirabiles alterationes mundi
et mutationes futurae sunt, et maxime circa leges et sectas, nam cum praedicta
coniunctione et illis revolutionibus Saturni ad hoc concurret revolutio seu
reversio superioris orbis, id est, octavae sphaerae per quam et per alia praemissa
cognoscitur sectarum mutatio . . . Unde ex his probabiliter concluditur quod
forte circa ilia tempora veniet Antichristus cum lege sua vel secta damnabili,
quae maxime adversa erit et contraria legi Christi; nam licet de adventu sui
determinato tempore vel momento haberi non possit humanitus certitudo. . . .
Tamen indeterminate loquendo quod circa ilia tempora venturus sit potest
haberi probabilis coniectura et verisimilis suspicio per astronomica iudicia. Cum
enim dictum sit secundum astronomos circa ilia tempora fieri mutationem
sectarum et secundum eos post machometum erit aliquis potens, qui legem
foedam et magicam constituet. Ideo verisimili probabilitate credi potest, quod
post sectam machometi nulla secta veniet, nisi lex antichristi."

7 Concordantia, etc., fol. b 5.

AION

held that only superstitions and heretical opinions were astro-
logically influenced, and especially the coming of the Anti-
christ.8

»55 We are probably right in assuming that these calculations
were known to Nostradamus, who proposed 1792 as an improve-
ment on 1789. Both dates are suggestive, and a knowledge of sub-
sequent events confirms that the things that happened around
that time were significant forerunners of developments in our
own day. The enthronement of the "Deesse Raison" was, in fact,
an anticipation of the antichristian trend that was pursued from
then onwards.

J56 The "renovation of the age" might mean a new aeon, and
it coincides in a remarkable way with the new system of dating,
the revolutionary calendar, which began with September 22,
1792, and had a distinctly antichristian character.9 What had
been brewing up long beforehand then became a manifest
event; in the French Revolution men witnessed the enantio-
dromia that had set in with the Renaissance and ran parallel
with the astrological fish symbol. The time seemed a significant
one astrologically, for a variety of reasons. In the first place this
was the moment when the precession of the equinoxes reached
the tail of the second fish.10 Then, in the year 1791, Saturn was
in T, a fiery sign. Besides that, tradition made use of the
theory of maximal conjunctions u and regarded the year of the
eighth coniunctio maxima— 1693— as a starting-point for future
calculations.12 This critical year was combined with another

8 Cf. Thorndike, IV, p. 103.

9 In classical usage renovatio can have the meaning of the modern word "revolu-
tion," whereas even in late Latin revolutio still retains its original meaning of
"revolving." As the text shows, Nostradamus thought of this moment (1791) as
the climax of a long-standing persecution of the Church. One is reminded of
Voltaire's "£crasez l'infame!"

10 There is nothing to suggest that a conscious attempt was made to prophesy
on the basis of the precession.

11 Conjunctions in Aries were regarded as such, at least as a rule. o° Aries is the
spring-point.

12 1 cannot claim to have understood Pierre d'Ailly's argument. Here is the
text (Second treatise, ch. 60, "De octava coniunctione maxima"): "Et post
illam erit complementum 10 revolutionum saturnalium anno Christi 1789 et hoc
erit post dictam coniunctionem per annos 97 vel prope et inter dictam coniunc-
tionem et illud complementum dictarum 10 revolutionum erit status octavae
sphaerae circiter per annos 25 quod sic patet: quia status octavae sphaerae erit

THE PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS

tradition basing itself on periods of ten revolutions of Saturn,
each period taking three hundred years. Pierre d'Ailly cites
Albumasar, who says in his Magnae coniunctiones: "They said
that the change shall come when ten revolutions of Saturn have
been completed, and that the permutation of Saturn is particu-
larly appropriate to the movable signs" (r, So, =^=, V3).13 Accord-
ing to Pierre d'Ailly, a Saturn period came to an end in 1 1 B.C.,
and he connects this with the appearance of Christ. Another
period ended in a.d. 289; this he connects with Manichaeism.
The year 589 foretells Islam, and 1189 the significant reign of
Pope Innocent III; 1489 announces a schism of the Church, and
1789 signalizes— by inference— the coming of the Antichrist.
Fantasy could do the rest, for the archetype had long been ready
and was only waiting for the time to be fulfilled. That a usurper
from the North would seize power 14 is easily understood when
we consider that the Antichrist is something infernal, the devil
or the devil's son, and is therefore Typhon or Set, who has his
fiery abode in the North. Typhon's power is triadic, possessing
two confederates, one in the East and one in the South. This
power corresponds to the "lower triad." 15
'57 Nostradamus, the learned physician and astrologer, would
certainly have been familiar with the idea of the North as the
region of the devil, unbelievers, and all things evil. The idea,

anno 444 post situm augmentationum [reading uncertain], quae secundum
tabulas astronomicas sunt adaequatae ad annum Christi 1320 perfectum, et ideo
anno Christi 1764, quibus annis si addas 25, sunt anni 1789 quos praediximus.
Unde iterum patet quod ab hoc anno Christi 1414 usque ad statum octavae
sphaerae erunt anni 253 perfecti." (And after that shall be the fulfilment of 10
revolutions of Saturn to the year 1789, and this shall be after the said con-
junction for 97 years or thereabouts, and between the said conjunction and
that fulfilment of the 10 revolutions there shall be a standstill of the eighth
sphere for about 25 years, which is evident from this: that the standstill of the
eighth sphere shall be in the 444th year after the position of the augmentations,
which according to the astronomical tables are assigned to the end of the year
of Christ 1320, that is the year of Christ 1764, and if you add 25 years to this,
you arrive at the year 1789 aforesaid. Hence it is again evident that from this
year of Christ 1414 to the standstill of the eighth sphere there will be 253
complete years.)

13 Fol. d 6.

14 It is not clear from the text whether the same "persecution" is meant, or a
new one. The latter would be possible.

15 Cf. "The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales," pars. 425^, 436ff.

AION

as St. Eucherius of Lyons (d. 450) remarks,16 goes back to Jere-
miah 1 : 14: "From the north shall an evil wind break forth
upon all the inhabitants of the land," 17 and other passages such
as Isaiah 14 : 12L:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou rut down to the ground, which didst weaken the
nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the mount
of assembly in the far north.18

The Benedictine monk Rhabanus Maurus (d. 856) says that
"the north wind is the harshness of persecution" and "a figure
of the old enemy." 19 The north wind, he adds, signifies the
devil, as is evident from Job 26 : 7: "He stretcheth out the north
over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." 20
Rhabanus interprets this as meaning that "God allows the devil
to rule the minds of those who are empty of his grace."21 St.
Augustine says: "Who is that north wind, save him who said: I
will set up my seat in the north, I will be like the most High?
The devil held rule over the wicked, and possessed the nations,"
etc.22
158 The Victorine monk Garnerius says that the "malign spirit"
was called Aquilo, the north wind. Its coldness meant the
"frigidity of sinners."23 Adam Scotus imagined there was a
frightful dragon's head in the north from which all evil comes.
From its mouth and snout it emitted smoke of a triple nature,24
the "threefold ignorance, namely of good and evil, of true and

16 Migne, P.L., vol. 50, col. 740.

17 "Ab Aquilone pendetur malum super omnes habitatores terrae" (DV).

18 "Quomodo cecidisti de coelo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris? corruisti in terram
qui vulnerabas gentes? Qui dicebas in corde tuo: in caelum conscendam, super
astra Dei exaltabo solium meum, sedebo in monte testamenti, in lateribus
Aquilonis" (trans, is AV; last line RSV).

19 Migne, P.L., vol. 112, col. 860.

20 This is an obvious analogy of the pneuma brooding on the face of the deep.
21 ". . . quod illorum mentibus, qui gratia sua vacui, diabolum Deus dominari
permittit."

22 Enar. in Ps. XLVII, 3; Migne, P.L., vol. 36, col. 534.

23 Sancti Victoris Parisiensis Gregorianum; Migne, P.L., vol. 193, cols. 59L

24 Allusion to the lower triad.

100

THE PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS

false, of fitting and unfitting." 25 "That is the smoke," says Adam
Scotus, "which the prophet Ezekiel, in his vision of God, saw
coming from the north," 2Q the "smoke" of which Isaiah speaks.27
The pious author never stops to think how remarkable it is that
the prophet's vision of God should be blown along on the wings
of the north wind, wrapped in this devilish smoke of threefold
ignorance. Where there is smoke, there is fire. Hence the "great
cloud" had "brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth
continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming
bronze." 28 The north wind comes from the region of fire and,
despite its coldness, is a "ventus urens" (burning wind), as
Gregory the Great calls it, referring to Job 27 : 2i.29 This
wind is the malign spirit, "who rouses up the flames of lust in
the heart" and kindles every living thing to sin. "Through the
breath of evil incitement to earthly pleasures he makes the
hearts of the wicked to burn." As Jeremiah 1:13 says, "I see a
boiling pot, facing away from the north." In these quotations
from Gregory we hear a faint echo of the ancient idea of the fire
in the north, which is still very much alive in Ezekiel, whose
cloud of fire appears from the north, whence "an evil shall
break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." 30
*59 In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that Nos-
tradamus warns against the usurper from the north when fore-
telling the coming of the Antichrist. Even before the Reforma-
tion the Antichrist was a popular figure in folklore, as the
numerous editions of the "Entkrist" 31 in the second half of the

25 De tripartito tabernaculo, III, c. 9; Migne, P.L., vol. 198, col. 761. Adam
Scotus speaks of the "darkness of the smoke from the north." Pseudo-Clement
(Homilies, XIX, 22) stresses "the sins of unconsciousness" (agnoia). Honorius of
Autun (Speculum de mysteriis ecclesiae; Migne, P.L., vol. 172, col. 833) says: "By
the north, where the sun lies hidden under the earth, Matthew is meant, who
describes the divinity of Christ hidden under the flesh." This confirms the
chthonic nature of the triad.

26 Ezek. 1 : 4: "And I saw, and behold a whirlwind came out of the north, and a
great cloud . . ."

27 Isaiah 14: 31: "Howl, O gate, cry, O city, all Philistia is thrown down, for a
smoke shall come from the north, and there is none that shall escape his troop."

28 Ezek. 1 : 4.

29 "A burning wind shall take him up and carry him away; and as a whirlwind
shall snatch him from his place" (In Expositionem bead Job Moralia; Migne,
P.L., vol. 76, cols. 54, 55).

30 Jer. 1 : 13L 31 Cf. Symbols of Transformation, par. 5C5.

101

AION

fifteenth century show.32 This is quite understandable in view
of the spiritual events then impending: the Reformation was
about to begin. Luther was promptly greeted as the Antichrist,
and it is possible that Nostradamus calls the Antichrist who was
to appear after 1792 the "second Antichrist" because the first
had already appeared in the guise of the German reformer, or
much earlier with Nero or Mohammed.33 We should not omit
to mention in this connection how much capital the Nazis made
out of the idea that Hitler was continuing and completing the
work of reformation which Luther had left only half finished.

160 From the existing astrological data, therefore, and from the
possibilities of interpreting them it was not difficult for Nos-
tradamus to predict the imminent enantiodromia of the Chris-
tian aeon; indeed, by making this prediction, he placed himself
firmly in the antichristian phase and served as its mouthpiece.

!6i After this excursion, let us turn back to our fish symbolism.

32 The text of the various mss. is supposed to go back to the Compendium
theologicae veritatis of Hugh of Strasbourg (13th cent.). Cf. Kelchner, Der
Enndkrist, p. 7.

33 So in Giovanni Nanni (1432-1502). See Thorndike, IV, pp. 263ft.

102

VIII

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE FISH

l6« In addition to the "pisciculi Christianorum," the shepherd
and the lamb play, as we know only too well, an almost greater
role in Christian allegory, and Hermes Kriophoros (the "ram-
bearer") became the prototype of the "good shepherd," the
tutelary god of flocks. Another prototype, in his capacity as
shepherd, was Orpheus.1 This aspect of the Poimen gave rise to
a figure of similar name in the mystery cults, who was popu-
larized in the "Shepherd" of Hermas (2nd century). Like the
"giant fish" mentioned in the Abercius inscription,2 the shep-
herd probably has connections with Attis, both temporally and
regionally. Reitzenstein even conjectures that the "Shepherd"
of Hermas derives from the Poimandres writings, which are of
purely pagan origin.3 Shepherd, ram, and lamb symbolism coin-
cides with the expiring aeon of Aries. In the first century of our
era the two aeons overlap, and the two most important mystery
gods of this period, Attis and Christ, are both characterized as
shepherds, rams, and fishes. The Poimen symbolism has under-
gone such thorough elaboration at the hands of Reitzenstein
that I am in no position to add anything illuminating in this
respect. The case is somewhat different with the fish symbol. Not
only are the sources more copious, but the very nature of the
symbol, and in particular its dual aspects, give rise to definite
psychological questions which I should like to go into more
closely.

l63 Like every hero, Christ had a childhood that was threatened
(massacre of the innocents, flight into Egypt). The astrological
"interpretation" of this can be found in Revelation 12 : 1: "A
woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet,

lEisler, Orpheus— The Fisher, pp. 51ft. 2 [Cf. par. 127, n. 4.]

3 Poimandres, pp. 32ft.

IO3

AION

and on her head a crown of twelve stars." She is in the pangs
of birth and is pursued by a dragon. She will give birth to a
man-child who shall "rule the nations with a rod of iron." This
story carries echoes of numerous kindred motifs in East and
West, for instance that of Leto and Python, of Aphrodite and
her son, who, when pursued, leapt into the Euphrates and were
changed into fishes,4 and of Isis and Horus in Egypt. The Syrian
Greeks identified Derceto-Atargatis and her son Ichthys with
the constellation of the Fishes.5

164 The mother-goddess— and the star-crowned woman of the
Apocalypse counts as one— is usually thought of as a virgin
(irapBivo^, virgo). The Christmas message, 'H irapBivo^ reroKev, av£d
<t>&<> (the virgin has brought forth, the light increases), is pagan.
Speaking of the so-called Korion in Alexandria, Epiphanius6
says that on the night of the Epiphany (January 5/6) the pagans
held a great festival:

They stay up the whole night singing songs and playing the flute,
offering these to the images of the gods; and, when the revelries of
the night are over, after cock-crow, they go down with torches into
a subterranean sanctuary and bring up a carved wooden image,
which is laid naked on a litter. On its forehead it has the sign of the
cross, in gold, and on both its hands two other signs of the same
shape, and two more on its knees; and the five signs are all fashioned
in gold. They carry this carved image seven times round the middle
of the temple precincts, to the sound of flutes and tambourines and
hymns, and after the procession they carry it down again into the
crypt. But if you ask them what this mysterious performance means,
they answer: Today, at this hour, the Kore, that is to say the virgin,
has given birth to the Aeon.

165 Epiphanius expressly states that he is not telling this of a
Christian sect, but of the worshippers of idols, and he does so
in order to illustrate the idea that even the pagans bear invol-
untary witness to the truth of Christianity.

4 Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology, p. 107.

5 Bouch£-Leclercq, L'Astrologie grecque, p. 147. For the relation of the gyne
(woman) to the zodiacal sign Virgo see Boll, A us der Offenbarung Johannis,
p. 122.

6 Panarium, LI, 22, Oehler edn., Part 3, pp. 632^ This passage is not in the older
editions of the Panarium, since it was discovered only recently in a ms. at Venice.

104

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FISH

166 Virgo, the zodiacal sign, carries either a wheat-sheaf or a
child. Some authorities connect her with the "woman" of the
Apocalypse.7 At any rate, this woman has something to do with
the prophecy of the birth of a Messiah at the end of time. Since
the author of the Apocalypse was supposed to be a Christian, the
question arises: To whom does the woman refer who is inter-
preted as the mother of the Messiah, or of Christ? And to
whom does the son of the woman refer who (translating the
Greek literally) shall "pasture (TrotfxaiveLv) the pagans with an iron
staff"?

,67 As this passage contains an allusion on the one hand to
the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 66 : 7,8 and on the other to
Yahweh's wrath (Psalm 2 : 99), it would seem to refer in some
way to the future rebirth of the Messiah. But such an idea is
quite impossible in the Christian sphere. Boll 10 says of the
description of the "lamb" in Revelation 5 : 6ff.: "This remark-
ably bizarre figure with seven horns and seven eyes cannot pos-
sibly be explained in Christian terms." Also, the "lamb" de-
velops some very unexpected peculiarities: he is a bellicose
lamb, a conqueror (Rev. 17 : 14). The mighty ones of the earth
will have to hide from his wrath (Rev. 6 : 15ft.). He is likened
to the "lion of the tribe of Judah" (Rev. 5 : 5). This lamb, who
is reminiscent of Psalm 2 : 9 ("Thou shalt break them with a rod
of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel"),
rather gives one the sinister impression of a daemonic ram,11 and
not at all of a lamb who is led meekly to the slaughter. The
lamb of the Apocalypse belongs, without doubt, to the cate-
gory of horned monsters mentioned in these prophecies. One
must therefore consider the question whether the author of the
Apocalypse was influenced by an idea that was in some sense
antithetical to Christ, perhaps by a psychological shadow-figure,

7 Boll, pp. 12 iff.

8 "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was de-
livered of a man child."

9 "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel." 10 Boll, p. 44.

11 His eyes signify the "seven Spirits of God" (Rev. 5:6) or the "seven eyes of
the Lord" (Zech. 4 : 10). The Lamb stands with the seven angels before God's
throne, as Satan did with the sons of God (Job 1 : 6), so that God is described
under the aspect of Ezekiel's vision and is thought of in Yahwistic terms— an
"umbra in lege"!

105

AION

an "umbra Jesu" which was united at the end of time with the
triumphant Christ, through an act of rebirth. This hypothesis
would explain the repetition of the birth myth and also the
curious fact that so important an eschatological expectation as
the coming of the Antichrist receives but scant mention in the
Apocalypse. The seven-horned ram is just about everything that
Jesus appears not to be.12 He is a real shadow-figure, but he
could not be described as the Antichrist, who is a creature of
Satan. For although the monstrous, warlike lamb is a shadow-
figure in the sense that he is the counterpart of the lamb who
was sacrificed, he is not nearly so irreconcilable with Christ as
the Antichrist would have to be. The duplication of the Christ-
figure cannot, therefore, be traced back to this split between
Christ and Antichrist, but is due rather to the anti-Roman re-
sentment felt by the Jewish Christians, who fell back on their
god of vengeance and his warlike Messiah. The author of the
Apocalypse may have been acquainted with Jewish speculations
known to us through later tradition. We are told in the Bere-
shith Rabbati of Moses ha-Darshan that Elias found in Bethle-
hem a young woman sitting before her door with a newborn
child lying on the ground beside her, flecked with blood. She
explained that her son had been born at an evil hour, just when
the temple was destroyed. Elias admonished her to look after the
child. When he came back again five weeks later, he asked about
her son. "He neither walks, nor sees, nor speaks, nor hears, but
lies there like a stone," said the woman. Suddenly a wind blew
from the four corners of the earth, bore the child away, and
plunged him into the sea. Elias lamented that it was now all up
with the salvation of Israel, but a bath kol (voice) said to him:

It is not so. He will remain in the great sea for four hundred years,
and eighty years in the rising smoke of the children of Korah,13
eighty years under the gates of Rome, and the rest of the time he
will wander round in the great cities until the end of the days
comes.14

168 This story describes a Messiah who, though born in Bethle-
hem, is wafted by divine intervention into the Beyond (sea =
unconscious). From the very beginning his childhood is so

12 That is, if we disregard passages like Matt. 21 : 19 and 22 : 7 and Luke 19 : 27.

13 [Cf. Num. 16.— Editors.] 14 Wunsche, Die Leiden des Messias, p. 91.

106

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FISH

threatened that he is scarcely able to live. The legend is sympto-
matic of an extraordinary weakness of the Messianic element in
Judaism and the dangers attending it, which would explain the
delay in the Messiah's appearance. For 560 years he remains
latent, and only then does his missionary work begin. This in-
terlude is not so far off the 530 years mentioned in the Tal-
mudic prophecy (cf. par. 133), near enough anyway for us to
compare them, if we take this legend as referring to Christ. In
the limitless sea of Jewish speculation mutual contacts of this
sort are more likely to have occurred than not. Thus the deadly
threat to the Messiah and his death by violence is a motif that
repeats itself in other stories, too. The later, mainly Cabalistic
tradition speaks of two Messiahs, the Messiah ben Joseph (or
ben Ephraim) and the Messiah ben David. They were compared
to Moses and Aaron, also to two roes, and this on the authority
of the Song of Solomon 4:5: "Thy two breasts are like two
young roes that are twins." 15 Messiah ben Joseph is, according
to Deuteronomy 33 : 17, the "firstling of his bullock," and
Messiah ben David rides on an ass.16 Messiah ben Joseph is the
first, Messiah ben David the second.17 Messiah ben Joseph must
die in order to "atone with his blood for the children of Yah-
weh." 18 He will fall in the fight against Gog and Magog, and
Armilus will kill him. Armilus is the Anti-Messiah, whom
Satan begot on a block of marble.19 He will be killed by Messiah
ben David in his turn. Afterwards, ben David will fetch the new
Jerusalem down from heaven and bring ben Joseph back to
life.20 This ben Joseph plays a strange role in later tradition.
Tabari, the commentator on the Koran, mentions that the Anti-
christ will be a king of the Jews,21 and in Abarbanel's Mashmi'a
Yeshu'ah the Messiah ben Joseph actually is the Antichrist. So he
is not only characterized as the suffering Messiah in contrast to

15 Targum on Canticles 4 : 5 in The Targum to The Song of Songs, p. 50.
Wunsche, p. 111. In the Zohar the Messiah is called "Mother." Schoettgen,
Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, II, p. 10. Cf. also the "Saviour of the twins" in
Pistis Sophia (above, par. 133, n. 44).

16 Zohar, trans, by H. Sperling and M. Simon, II, p. 358: "Hence it is written
of him [the Messiah] that he will be 'poor and riding on an ass . . .' (Zech.
12:9)." Also Wunsche, p. 100. 17 Ibid., p. 114. 18 Ibid., p. 115.

19 Armilus or Armillus — "PwfivXos, the Antichrist. Methodius: "Romulus, who
is also Armaeleus." 20 Wunsche, p. 120.

21 Chronique of Tabari, I, ch. 23, p. 67.

107

AION

the victorious one, but is ultimately thought of as his antag-
onist.22
l69 As these traditions show, the above-mentioned weakness of
the Messianic element consists in a split which in the end be-
comes a complete polarity. This development is foreshadowed
in Persian religious literature, in the pre-Christian idea of an
enantiodromia of the great time-periods, and the deterioration
of goodness. The Bahman Yast calls the fourth Iron Age "the
evil sovereignty of the demons with dishevelled hair of the race
of Wrath."23 On the other hand, the splitting of the Messiah
into two is an expression of an inner disquiet with regard to the
character of Yahweh, whose injustice and unreliability must
have shocked every thoughtful believer ever since the time of
Job.24 Job puts the problem in unequivocal terms, and Chris-
tianity gave an equally unequivocal answer. Jewish mysticism,
on the other hand, went its own way, and its speculations hover
over depths which Christian thinkers have done their utmost to
cover up. I do not want to elaborate this theme here, but will
mention as an example a story told by Ibn Ezra. In Spain, he
says, there was a great sage who was reputed to be unable to
read the Eighty-ninth Psalm because it saddened him too much.
The verses in question are:

I will not remove from him my steadfast love,

or be false to my faithfulness.
I will not violate my covenant,

or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
Once for all I have sworn my holiness:

I will not lie to David.
His line shall endure for ever,

his throne as long as the sun before me.
Like the moon it shall be established for ever;

the witness in the skies is sure. Selah!
But now thou hast cast off and rejected,

thou art full of wrath against thy anointed.
Thou hast renounced the covenant with thy servant;

thou hast trodden his crown in the dust.

22 Bousset, The Antichrist Legend, p. 111.

zzPahlavi Texts, trans, by E. W. West, p. 193.

24 Cf. the opposition between mercy and justice in God's nature, supra, pars.

io8ff.

108

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FISH

Thou hast breached all his walls;

thou hast laid his strongholds in ruins.25

It is the same problem as in Job. As the highest value and
supreme dominant in the psychic hierarchy, the God-image is
immediately related to, or identical with, the self, and every-
thing that happens to the God-image has an effect on the latter.
Any uncertainty about the God-image causes a profound uneasi-
ness in the self, for which reason the question is generally
ignored because of its painfulness. But that does not mean that
it remains unasked in the unconscious. What is more, it is
answered by views and beliefs like materialism, atheism, and
similar substitutes, which spread like epidemics. They crop up
wherever and whenever one waits in vain for the legitimate
answer. The ersatz product represses the real question into the
unconscious and destroys the continuity of historical tradition
which is the hallmark of civilization. The result is bewilder-
ment and confusion. Christianity has insisted on God's goodness
as a loving Father and has done its best to rob evil of substance.
The early Christian prophecy concerning the Antichrist, and
certain ideas in late Jewish theology, could have suggested to us
that the Christian answer to the problem of Job omits to men-
tion the corollary, the sinister reality of which is now being
demonstrated before our eyes by the splitting of our world:
the destruction of the God-image is followed by the annulment
of the human personality. Materialistic atheism with its Utopian
chimeras forms the religion of all those rationalistic movements
which delegate the freedom of personality to the masses and
thereby extinguish it. The advocates of Christianity squander
their energies in the mere preservation of what has come down
to them, with no thought of building on to their house and
making it roomier. Stagnation in these matters is threatened in
the long run with a lethal end.

As Bousset has plausibly suggested, the duality of the apoc-
alyptic Christ is the outcome of Jewish-Gnostic speculations
whose echoes we hear in the traditions mentioned above. The
intensive preoccupation of the Gnostics with the problem of
evil stands out in startling contrast to the peremptory nullifica-
tion of it by the Church fathers, and shows that this question

25 Psalm 89 : 33ft.

109

AION

had already become topical at the beginning of the third cen-
tury. In this connection we may recall the view expressed by
Valentinus,26 that Christ was born "not without a kind of
shadow" and that he afterwards "cast off the shadow from him-
self." 27 Valentinus lived sometime in the first half of the second
century, and the Apocalypse was probably written about a.d. 90,
under Domitian. Like other Gnostics, Valentinus carried the
gospels a stage further in his thinking, and for this reason it does
not seem to me impossible that he understood the "shadow" as
the Yahwistic law under which Christ was born. The Apocalypse
and other things in the New Testament could easily have
prompted him to such a view, quite apart from the more or less
contemporaneous ideas about the demiurge and the prime
Ogdoad that consists of light and shadow.28 It is not certain
whether Origen's doubt concerning the ultimate fate of the
devil was original; 29 at all events, it proves that the possibility
of the devil's reunion with God was an object of discussion in
very early times, and indeed had to be if Christian philosophy
was not to end in dualism. One should not forget that the theory
of the privatio boni does not dispose of the eternity of hell and
damnation. God's humanity is also an expression of dualism, as
the controversy of the Monophysites and Dyopnysites in the
early Church shows. Apart from the religious significance of
the decision in favour of a complete union of both natures, I
would mention in passing that the Monophysite dogma has a
noteworthy psychological aspect: it tells us (in psychological
parlance) that since Christ, as a man, corresponds to the ego,
and, as God, to the self, he is at once both ego and self, part and
whole. Empirically speaking, consciousness can never compre-

26 He was, it seems, a cleric, who is said to have been a candidate for the
episcopal see in Rome.

27 Irenaeus, Adv. haer., I, 11, 1 (Roberts/Rambaut trans., I, p. 46).

28 Doctrine of the Valentinian Secundus (ibid., I, p. 46).

29 De oratione, 27: ". . . so that that supreme sinner and blasphemer against
the Holy Ghost may be kept from sin through all this present age, and here-
after in the age to come from its beginning to its end be treated I know not
how" (. . . ita ut summus ille peccator et in Spiritum sanctum blasphemus per
totum hoc praesens saeculum a peccato detineatur, et post haec in futuro ab
initio ad finem sit nescio quomodo tractandus), thus giving rise to the view that
"even the devil will some day be saved." [Cf. alternative trans, by J. E. L. Oulton
and H. Chadwick, p. 304.]

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FISH

hend the whole, but it is probable that the whole is uncon-
sciously present in the ego. This would be equivalent to the
highest possible state of reAeiVns (completeness or perfection).

72 I have dwelt at some length on the dualistic aspects of the
Christ-figure because, through the fish symbolism, Christ was
assimilated into a world of ideas that seems far removed from
the gospels— a world of pagan origin, saturated with astrological
beliefs to an extent that we can scarcely imagine today. Christ
was born at the beginning of the aeon of the Fishes. It is by no
means ruled out that there were educated Christians who knew
of the coniunctio maxima of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces in
the year 7 B.C., just as, according to the gospel reports, there
were Chaldaeans who actually found Christ's birthplace. The
Fishes, however, are a double sign.

73 At midnight on Christmas Eve, when (according to the old
time-reckoning) the sun enters Capricorn, Virgo is standing on
the eastern horizon, and is soon followed by the Serpent held
by Ophiuchus, the "Serpent-bearer." This astrological coin-
cidence seems to me worth mentioning, as also the view that the
two fishes are mother and son. The latter idea has a quite special
significance because this relationship suggests that the two fishes
were originally one. In fact, Babylonian and Indian astrology
know of only one fish.30 Later, this mother evidently gave birth
to a son, who was a fish like her. The same thing happened to
the Phoenician Derceto-Atargatis, who, half fish herself, had a
son called Ichthys. It is just possible that "the sign of the prophet
Jonah" 31 goes back to an older tradition about an heroic night
sea journey and conquest of death, where the hero is swallowed
by a fish ("whale-dragon") and is then reborn.32 The redemp-
tory name Joshua33 (Yehoshua, Yeshua, Gr. lesous) is con-
nected with the fish: Joshua is the son of Nun, and Nun means
'fish.' The Joshua ben Nun of the Khidr legend had dealings
with a fish that was meant to be eaten but was revived by a drop
of water from the fountain of life.34

30 Namely Piscis Austrinus, the "Southern Fish," which merges with Pisces and
whose principal star is Fomalhaut. 31 Matt. 12 : 39, 16 : 4; Luke 11 : 29L

32 Cf. Frobenius, Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes, and my Symbols of Transforma-
tion, pars. 3o8ff. 33 "Yahweh is salvation."

34 Koran, Sura 18. Cf. "Concerning Rebirth," pars. 244^, and Vollers, "Chidher,"
p. 241.

Ill

AION

274 The mythological Great Mothers are usually a danger to
their sons. Jeremias mentions a fish representation on an early
Christian lamp, showing one fish devouring the other.35 The
name of the largest star in the constellation known as the South-
ern Fish— Fomalhaut, 'the fish's mouth'— might be interpreted
in this sense, just as in fish symbolism every conceivable form
of devouring concupiscentia is attributed to fishes, which are
said to be "ambitious, libidinous, voracious, avaricious, lascivi-
ous"—in short, an emblem of the vanity of the world and of
earthly pleasures ("voluptas terrena").36 They owe these bad
qualities most of all to their relationship with the mother- and
love-goddess Ishtar, Astarte, Atargatis, or Aphrodite. As the
planet Venus, she has her "exaltatio" in the zodiacal sign of the
fishes. Thus, in astrological tradition as well as in the history of
symbols, the fishes have always had these opprobrious qualities
attached to them,37 while on the other hand laying claim to a
special and higher significance. This claim is based — at least in
astrology — on the fact that anyone born under Pisces may expect
to become a fisherman or a sailor, and in that capacity to catch
fishes or hold dominion over the sea— an echo of the primitive
totemistic identity between the hunter and his prey. The Baby-
lonian culture-hero Cannes was himself a fish, and the Christian
Ichthys is a fisher of men par excellence. Symbologically, he
is actually the hook or bait on God's fishing-rod with which the
Leviathan— death or the devil— is caught.38 In Jewish tradition
the Leviathan is a sort of eucharistic food stored up for the

35 jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, p. 76. This
lamp has never been traced.

36 Picinellus, Mundus symbolicus (1680-81), Lib. VI, cap. I.

37 Bouche-Leclercq, p. 147.

38 How closely the negative and the positive meanings are related can be seen
from the fish-hook motif, attributed to St. Cyprian: "Like a fish which darts
at a baited hook, and not only does not lay hold of the bait along with the
hook, but is itself hauled up out of the sea; so he who had the power of death
did indeed snatch away the body of Jesus unto death, but did not observe that
the hook of the Godhead was concealed therein, until he had devoured it; and
thereupon remained fixed thereto."

Stephen of Canterbury (Liber allegoricus in Habacuc, unavailable to me) says:
"It is the bait of longed-for enjoyment that is displayed in the hook, but the tena-
cious hidden hook is consumed along with the bait. So in fleshly concupiscence the
devil displays the bait of pleasure, but the sting of sin lies hid therein." In this
regard see Picinellus, Lib. VI, cap. 1.

112

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FISH

faithful in Paradise. After death, they clothe themselves in fish-
robes.39 Christ is not only a fisher but the fish that is "eucha-
ristically" eaten.40 Augustine says in his Confessions: "But [the
earth] eats the fish that was drawn from the deep, at the table
which you have prepared for them that believe; for the fish was
drawn from the deep in order to nourish the needy ones of the
earth." 41 St. Augustine is referring to the meal of fishes eaten by
the disciples at Emmaus (Luke 24 : 43). We come across the
"healing fish" in the story of Tobit: the angel Raphael helps
Tobit to catch the fish that is about to eat him, and shows him
how to make a magic "smoke" against evil spirits from the heart
and liver of the fish, and how he can heal his father's blindness
with its gall (Tobit 6 : iff.).

75 St. Peter Damian (d. 1072) describes monks as fishes, because
all pious men are little fishes leaping in the net of the Great
Fisher.42 In the Pectorios inscription (beginning of the fourth
century), believers are called the "divine descendants of the
heavenly fish."43

76 The fish of Manu is a saviour,44 identified in legend with
Vishnu, who had assumed the form of a small goldfish. He begs
Manu to take him home, because he was afraid of being de-

39 Scheftelowitz, "Das Fisch-Symbol im Judentum und Christentum," p. 365.

40 Cf. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols, V, pp. 4 iff.

41 Lib. XIII, cap. XXI. (Cf. trans, by F. J. Sheed, p. 275, modified.)

42 "The cloister of a monastery is indeed a fishpond of souls, and fish live there-
in" (Picinellus, Mundus).

An Alexandrian hymn from the 2nd cent, runs:

"Fisher of men, whom Thou to life dost bringl

From the evil sea of sin

And from the billowy strife

Gathering pure fishes in,

Caught with sweet bait of life."
(Writings of Clement of Alexandria, trans, by W. Wilson, I, p. 344.) Cf. Doelger,
'IX0TS, I, p. 4. Tertullian (De baptismo, cap. I) says: "But we little fishes, after
the example of our TX9T2 Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor have we safety
in any other way than by permanently abiding in (that) water." (Trans, by
S. Thelwall, I, pp. 231-32.) The disciples of Gamaliel the Elder (beginning of
1st cent.) were named after various kinds of fishes. (Abot de Rabbi Nathan,
cap. 40 [cf. trans, by J. Goldin, p. 166], cited in Scheftelowitz, p. 5.)

43 Pohl, Das Ichthysmonument von Autun, and Doelger, I, pp. i2ff.

44 "I will save thee." Shatapatha Brahmana (trans, by J. Eggeling, I [i.e., XII],
p. 216).

AION

voured by the water monsters.45 He then grows mightily, fairy-
tale fashion, and in the end rescues Manu from the great flood.46
On the twelfth day of the first month of the Indian year a
golden fish is placed in a bowl of water and invoked as follows:
"As thou, O God, in the form of a fish, hast saved the Vedas that
were in the underworld, so save me also, O Keshava!"47 De
Gubernatis and other investigators after him tried to derive the
Christian fish from India.48 Indian influence is not impossible,
since relations with India existed even before Christ and various
spiritual currents from the East made themselves felt in early
Christianity, as we know from the reports of Hippolytus and
Epiphanius. Nevertheless, there is no serious reason to derive
the fish from India, for Western fish symbolism is so rich and at
the same time so archaic that we may safely regard it as autoch-
thonous.
*77 Since the Fishes stand for mother and son, the mythological
tragedy of the son's early death and resurrection is already im-
plicit in them. Being the twelfth sign of the Zodiac, Pisces de-
notes the end of the astrological year and also a new beginning.
This characteristic coincides with the claim of Christianity to
be the beginning and end of all things, and with its eschato-
logical expectation of the end of the world and the coming of
God's kingdom.49 Thus the astrological characteristics of the
fish contain essential components of the Christian myth; first,
the cross; second, the moral conflict and its splitting into the
figures of Christ and Antichrist; third, the motif of the son of a
virgin; fourth, the classical mother-son tragedy; fifth, the danger
at birth; and sixth, the saviour and bringer of healing. It is
therefore not beside the point to relate the designation of Christ
as a fish to the new aeon then dawning. If this relationship
existed even in antiquity, it must obviously have been a tacit

45 De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, II, pp. 334^

46 Shatapatha Brahmana (Eggeling trans., pp. 2i6ff.).

47 Doelger, I, p. 23. Keshava means 'having much or fine hair,' a cognomen
of Vishnu. 48 ibid., pp. 2 iff.

49 Origen (De oratione, cap. 27): ". . . as the last month is the end of the year,
after which the beginning of another month ensues, so it may be that, since
several ages complete as it were a year of ages, the present age is 'the end,' after
which certain 'ages to come' will ensue, of which the age to come is the begin-
ning, and in those coming ages God will 'shew the riches of his grace in kind-
ness' [Eph. 2 : 7]" (Oulton/Chadwick trans., p. 304).

114

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FISH

assumption or one that was purposely kept secret; for, to my
knowledge, there is no evidence in the old literature that the
Christian fish symbolism was derived from the zodiac. More-
over, the astrological evidence up to the second century a.d. is
by no means of such a kind that the Christ/Antichrist antithe-
sis could be derived causally from the polarity of the Fishes,
since this, as the material we have cited shows, was not stressed
as in any way significant. Finally, as Doelger rightly emphasizes,
the Ichthys was always thought of as only one fish, though here
we must point out that in the astrological interpretation Christ
is in fact only one of the fishes, the role of the other fish being
allotted to the Antichrist. There are, in short, no grounds what-
ever for supposing that the zodion of the Fishes could have
served as the Ichthys prototype.

Pagan fish symbolism plays in comparison a far greater
role.50 The most important is the Jewish material collected by
Scheftelowitz. The Jewish "chalice of benediction" 51 was some-
times decorated with pictures of fishes, for fishes were the food
of the blessed in Paradise. The chalice was placed in the dead
man's grave as a funerary gift.52 Fishes have a wide distribution
as sepulchral symbols. The Christian fish occurs mainly in this
connection. Devout Israelites who live "in the water of the
doctrine" are likened to fishes. This analogy was self-evident
around a.d. 100.53 The fish also has a Messianic significance.54
According to the Syrian Apocalypse of Baruch, Leviathan shall
rise from the sea with the advent of the Messiah.55 This is prob-
ably the "very great fish" of the Abercius inscription, corre-
sponding to the "fish from the fountain" mentioned in a

50 Especially noteworthy is the cult of the dove and the fish in the Syrian area.
There too the fish was eaten as "Eucharistic" food. (Cumont, Les Religions
orientales dans le paganisme romain, pp. 108-9, 255~57-) The chief deity of the
Philistines was called Dagon, derived from dag, 'fish.'

51 rb -rrorripiov rijs evXoylas'- calix benedictionis (I Cor. 10 : 16, DV).

52 Scheftelowitz, p. 375. 53 Ibid., p. 3.

54 Cf. Goodenough, V, pp. 35ft-.

55 At the same time "Behemoth shall be revealed from his place . . . and then
they shall be food for all that are left." (Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha,
II, p. 497.) The idea of Leviathan rising from the sea also links up with the vision
in II Esdras 13 : 25, of the "man coming up from the midst of the sea." Cf. Charles,
II, p. 579, and Wischnitzer-Bernstein, Symbole und Gestalten der jiidischen Kunst,
pp. i22f. and 134I

115

AION

religious debate at the court of the Sassanids (5th century). The
fountain refers to the Babylonian Hera, but in Christian lan-
guage it means Mary, who in orthodox as well as in Gnostic
circles (Acts of Thomas) was invoked as 7^777, 'fountain.' Thus
we read in a hymn of Synesius (c. 350): Hayd Trcr/d^, apx&v dpxd,
pi$ibv pi^a, piovds el p.ovabuv, kt\. (Fountain of fountains, source of
sources, root of roots, monad of monads art thou.) 56 The foun-
tain of Hera was also said to contain the one fish (pbvov IxOvv)
that is caught by the "hook of divinity" and "feeds the whole
world with its flesh." 57 In a Boeotian vase-painting the "lady of
the beasts" 58 is shown with a fish between her legs, or in her
body,59 presumably indicating that the fish is her son. Although,
in the Sassanid debate, the legend of Mary was transferred to
Hera, the "one fish" that is hooked does not correspond to the
Christian symbol, for in Christian symbology the crucifix is the
hook or bait with which God catches Leviathan,60 who is either
death or the devil ("that ancient serpent") but not the Messiah.
In Jewish tradition, on the other hand, the pharmakon athana-
sias is the flesh of Leviathan, the "Messianic fish," as Scheftelo-
witz says. The Talmud Sanhedrin says that the Messiah "will
not come until a fish is sought for an invalid and cannot be pro-
cured." 61 According to the Apocalypse of Baruch, Behemoth as
well as Leviathan 62 is a eucharistic food. This is assiduously
overlooked. As I have explained elsewhere,63 Yahweh's two pre-
historic monsters seem to represent a pair of opposites, the one
being unquestionably a land animal, and the other aquatic.

56 Wirth, Ans orientalischen Chroniken, p. 199.

57 Ibid., pp. 161, 19L

58 [Cf. Neumann, The Great Mother, ch. 14 and pi. 134. — Editors.]

59 Eisler, Orpheus— The Fisher, PI. LXIV.

60 See Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 28.

61 Scheftelowitz, p. 9; from the Talmud Nezikin VI, Sanhedrin II (BT, p. 662).
Cf. the kcrdU -kivLuv in the Pectorios inscription, supra, p. 8gn.

62 A passage in Moses Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed, trans, by M. Fried-
lander, p. 303) has bearing on the interpretation of Leviathan. Kirchmaier (Dis-
putationes Zoologicae, 1736, p. 73) cites it as follows: "Speaking of these same
things Rabbi Moses Maimon says that Leviathan possesses a [universal] combina-
tion (complexum generalem) of bodily peculiarities found separate in different
animals." Although this rationalistic author dismisses the idea as "nugatory," it
nevertheless seems to me to hint at an archetype ("complexum generalem") of
the "spirit of gravity."

63 Psychological Types (1923 edn., pp. 333ft.).

Il6

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FISH

J79 Since olden times, not only among the Jews but all over the
Near East, the birth of an outstanding human being has been
identified with the rising of a star. Thus Balaam prophesies
(Num. 24 : 17):

I shall see him, but not now,

I shall behold him, but not nigh;

a star shall come forth out of Jacob. . . .

180 Always the hope of a Messiah is connected with the appear-
ance of a star. According to the Zohar, the fish that swallowed
Jonah died, but revived after three days and then spewed him
out again. "Through the fish we shall find a medicament for the
whole world." 64 This text is medieval but comes Irom a trust-
worthy source. The "very great65 and pure fish from the foun-
tain" mentioned in the Abercius inscription is, in the opinion
of Scheftelowitz,66 none other than Leviathan, which is not only
the biggest fish but is held to be pure, as Scheftelowitz shows by
citing the relevant passages from Talmudic literature. In this
connection we might also mention the "one and only fish" (eU
ixovos IxOvs) recorded in the "Happenings in Persia." 67

6-1 Scheftelowitz, p. 10. Cf. Matt. 12 : 39 and 16 : 4, where Christ takes the sign

of the prophet Jonah as a sign of the Messianic age and a prefiguration of his

own fate. Cf. also Goodenough, Jewish Symbols, V, pp. 470°.

65 Uafifxeyed-qs. 66 Pp. 7f.

67 Ta ev Uepaidc irpaxdivra (Wirth, p. 151).

117

THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE FISH SYMBOL

181 According to the Syrian Apocalypse of Baruch (29 : iff.), the
time preceding the coming of the Messiah falls into twelve parts,
and the Messiah will appear in the twelfth. As a time-division,
the number twelve points to the zodia, of which the twelfth is
the Fishes. Leviathan will then rise out of the sea. "The two
great sea monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation
and which I have preserved until that time shall then be food
for all who are left." 1 Since Behemoth is unquestionably not a
sea-animal, but one which, as a midrash says, "pastures on a
thousand mountains," 2 the two "sea monsters" must be a dupli-
cation of Leviathan. And as a matter of fact, he does appear to
be divided as to sex, for there is a male and a female of the
species.3 A similar duplication is suggested in Isaiah 27:1: "In
that day, the Lord with his sore and great strong sword shall
punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that
crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon [Vulgate: whale]
that is in the sea." This duplication gave rise in medieval
alchemy to the idea of two serpents fighting each other, one
winged, the other wingless.4 In the Book of Job, where Levi-
athan appears only in the singular, the underlying polarity
comes to light in his opposite number, Behemoth. A poem by
Meir ben Isaac describes the battle between Leviathan and
Behemoth at the end of time, in which the two monsters wound
each other to death. Yahweh then cuts them up and serves them

1 Charles, II, p. 497, modified.

2 Midrash Tanchuma, Lev. 11:2 and Deut. 29 : 9; cited in Scheftelowitz, pp. 39L

3 Talmud, Nezikin III, Baba Bathra (BT, I, p. 296). The female Leviathan has
already been killed by Yahweh, salted, and preserved for the end of time. The
male he castrated, for otherwise they would have multiplied and swamped the
earth.

4 A typical pair of opposites. Cf. the struggle between the two dragons in
hexagram 2, line 6, in the / Ching (Wilhelm/Baynes trans., I, pp. 14-15).

Il8

THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE FISH SYMBOL

as food to the devout.5 This idea is probably connected with the
old Jewish Passover, which was celebrated in the month of Adar,
the fish. In spite of the distinct duplication of Leviathan in the
later texts, it is very likely that originally there was only one
Leviathan, authenticated at a very early date in the Ugarit texts
from Ras Shamra (c. 2000 B.C.). Virolleaud gives the following
translation:

Quand tu frapperas Ltn, le serpent brh
Tu acheveras le serpent 'qltn,
Le puissant aux sept tetes.

182 He comments: "It is remarkable that the two adjectives brh
and 'qltn are the ones which qualify, in Isaiah 27 : 1, a particu-
larly dangerous species of serpent which we call Leviathan, in
Hebrew Liviatan." 6 From this period, too, there are pictures of
a fight between Baal and the serpent Ltn,7 remarkable in that
the conflict is between a god and a monster and not between
two monsters, as it was later.

183 We can see from the example of Leviathan how the great
"fish" gradually split into its opposite, after having itself been
the opposite of the highest God and hence his shadow, the
embodiment of his evil side.8

j84 With this splitting of the monster into a new opposite, its
original opposition to God takes a back seat, and the monster is
now in conflict either with itself or with an equivalent monster
(e.g., Leviathan and Behemoth). This relieves God of his own
inner conflict, which now appears outside him in the form of a
hostile pair of brother monsters. In later Jewish tradition the
Leviathan that Yahweh fought with in Isaiah develops a tend-
ency, on the evidence cited by Scheftelowitz, to become "pure"
and be eaten as "eucharistic" food, with the result that, if one
wanted to derive the Ichthys symbol from this source, Christ as

5 Cf. the Midrash Tanchuma.

6 "Note complementaire sur le poeme de Mot et Alei'n," p. 357.

7 Virolleaud, "La legende de Baal, dieu des Pheniciens," p. ix.

8 Perhaps an echo of this psychological development may be found in the views
of Moses Maimonides, who writes that in the Book of Job (ch. 41) Yahweh
"dwells longest on the nature of the Leviathan, which possesses a combination of
bodily peculiarities found separate in different animals, in those that walk, those
that swim, and those that fly" (Guide for the Perplexed, p. 303). Accordingly
Leviathan is a kind of super-animal, just as Yahweh is a kind of superman.

1*9

AION

a fish would appear in place of Leviathan, the monstrous ani-
mals of tradition having meanwhile faded into mere attributes
of death and the devil.
l85 This split corresponds to the doubling of the shadow often
met with in dreams, where the two halves appear as different or
even as antagonistic figures. This happens when the conscious
ego-personality does not contain all the contents and components
that it could contain. Part of the personality then remains split
off and mixes with the normally unconscious shadow, the two
together forming a double — and often antagonistic — personality.
If we apply this experience from the domain of practical psy-
chology to the mythological material under discussion, we find
that God's monstrous antagonist produces a double because the
God-image is incomplete and does not contain everything it
logically ought to contain. Whereas Leviathan is a fishlike crea-
ture, primitive and cold-blooded, dwelling in the depths of the
ocean, Behemoth is a warm-blooded quadruped, presumably
something like a bull, who roams the mountains (at least in later
tradition). Hence he is related to Leviathan as a higher, superior
creature to a lower, inferior one, rather like the winged and the
wingless dragon in alchemy. All winged beings are "volatile,"
i.e., vapours and gases, in other words pneuma. Just as in Augus-
tine Christ the fish is "drawn from the deep," 9 so in II Esdras
13 : 2ff. the "man" came out of the sea like a wind. His appear-
ance was heralded by an eagle and a lion, theriomorphic sym-
bols which greatly affrighted the prophet in the same way that
Behemoth inspired chiefly terror in Job. The fish drawn from
the deep has a secret connection with Leviathan: he is the bait
with which Leviathan is lured and caught. This fish is probably
a duplication of the great fish and stands for its pneumatic
aspect. It is evident that Leviathan has such an aspect, because
he, like the Ichthys, is eucharistic food.10 That this doubling
represents an act of conscious realization is clear from Job
26 : 12, where we are told that Yahweh smote Rahab "by his
understanding" (tebuna). Rahab, the sea monster, is cousin
german to Tiamat, whom Marduk split asunder by filling her
up with Imhullu, the north wind.11 The word tebuna comes

9 Confessions, Sheed trans., p. 275. 10 Cf. Goodenough, V, pp. 51ft.

11 The motif of splitting is closely related to that of penetration and perforation
in alchemy. Cf. also Job 26 : 13: "His hand pierced the fleeing serpent" (RSV).

120

THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE FISH SYMBOL

from bin, 'to separate, split, part asunder'— in other words, to
discriminate, which is the essence of conscious realization.12 In
this sense Leviathan and Behemoth represent stages in the de-
velopment of consciousness whereby they become assimilated
and humanized. The fish changes, via the warm-blooded quad-
ruped, into a human being, and in so far as the Messiah became,
in Christianity, the second Person of the Trinity, the human
figure split off from the fish hints at God's incarnation.13 What
was previously missing in the God-image, therefore, was the
human element.

186 The role of the fish in Jewish tradition probably has some
connections with the Syrophoenician fish cult of Atargatis. Her
temples had pools with sacred fishes in them which no one was
allowed to touch.14 Similarly, meals of fish were ritually eaten
in the temples. "This cult and these customs, which originated
in Syria, may well have engendered the Ichthys symbolism in
Christian times," says Cumont.15 In Lycia they worshipped the
divine fish Orphos or Diorphos, the son of Mithras and the
"sacred stone," Cybele.16 This god is a variant of the Semitic
fish-deities we have already mentioned, such as Oannes, the
Babylonian Nun, Dagon, and Adonis, whom the Greeks called
Ichthys. Fish offerings were made to Tanit in Carthage and to
Ea and Nina in Babylon. Traces of a fish cult can be found in
Egypt too. The Egyptian priests were forbidden to eat fish, for
fishes were held to be as unclean as Typhon's sea. "All abstain
from sea-fish," observes Plutarch. According to Clement of
Alexandria, the inhabitants of Syene, Elephantine, and Oxy-
rhynchus worshipped a fish. Plutarch 17 says it was the custom
to eat a broiled fish before the door of one's house on the ninth
day of the first month. Doelger inclines to the view that this
custom paved the way for the eucharistic fish in Christianity.18

187 The ambivalent attitude towards the fish is an indication of
its double nature. It is unclean and an emblem of hatred on
the one hand, but on the other it is an object of veneration. It

12 For this information I am indebted to Dr. Riwkah SchSrf.

13 II Esdras is a Jewish text written at the end of the ist cent. a.d.

14 Cumont, Les Religions orientales, p. 255.

15 Ibid., pp. 108-9, 256- 16 Eisler, Orpheus— The Fisher, p. 20.

17 De hide et Osiride, cap. VII (Babbitt trans., V, p. 19).

18 'IXGT2, I, p. 126. The risen Christ ate of a broiled fish (Luke 24 : 42).

121

AION

even seems to have been regarded as a symbol for the soul, if we
are to judge by a painting on a late Hellenistic sarcophagus.
The mummy lies on a lion-shaped bier, and under the bier are
the four Canopic jars, the lids representing the four sons of
Horus, three of them with animal heads and one with a human
head. Over the mummy there floats a fish,19 instead of the usual
soul-bird. It is clear from the painting that the fish is an oxyrhyn-
chus, or barbel, one of the three most abominated fishes, which
was said to have devoured the phallus of Osiris after he had
been dismembered by Typhon (Set).20 Barbels were sacred to
Typhon, who is "that part of the soul which is passionate, im-
pulsive, irrational, and truculent."21 Because of their voracious-
ness, fishes were regarded in the Middle Ages as an allegory of
the damned.22 The fish as an Egyptian soul-symbol is therefore
all the more remarkable. The same ambivalence can be seen in
the figure of Typhon /Set. In later times he was a god of death,
destruction, and the desert, the treacherous opponent of his
brother Osiris. But earlier he was closely connected with Horus
and was a friend and helper of the dead. In one of the Pyramid
Texts he and Heru-ur (the "older Horus") help Osiris to climb
up to heaven. The floor of heaven consists of an iron plate,
which in places is so close to the tops of the mountains that one
can climb up to heaven with the help of a ladder. The four
corners of the iron plate rest on four pillars, corresponding to
the four cardinal points. In the Pyramid Texts of Pepi I, a song
of praise is addressed to the "ladder of the twin gods," and the
Unas text says: "Unas cometh forth upon the Ladder which his
father Ra hath made for him, and Horus and Set take the hand
of Unas, and they lead him into the Tuat." 23 Other texts show
that there was enmity between Heru-ur and Set because one was
a god of the day and the other a god of the night. The hiero-
glyph for Set has as a determinative the sign for a stone, or else

19 Spiegelberg, "Der Fisch als Symbol der Seele," p. 574. Cf. Goodenough, V, fig. 9,
where the mummy appears in the form of a fish.

20 The oxyrhynchus fish was regarded as sacred all over Egypt. Cf. Budge, The
Gods of the Egyptians, II, p. 382; Plutarch, De Iside, cap. XLIX (Babbitt trans.,
V.p. 19).

21 Ibid. (pp. i2of.).

22 Picinellus, Mundus symbolicus, Lib. VI, cap. I.

23 Budge, II, pp. 24 if. Cf. Christ's transfiguration in the presence of Moses and
Elias (Matt. 17 : 4), and the "Saviour of the twins" in Pistis Sophia.

122

THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE FISH SYMBOL

the unidentified Set-animal with long ears. There are paintings
showing the heads of Heru-ur and Set growing out of the same
body, from which we may infer the identity of the opposites
they represent. Budge says: "The attributes of Heru-ur changed
somewhat in early dynastic times, but they were always the
opposite of those of Set, whether we regard the two gods as per-
sonifications of two powers of nature, i.e., Light and Darkness,
Day and Night, or as Kosmos and Chaos, or as Life and Death,
or as Good and Evil." 24

188 This pair of gods represent the latent opposites contained in
Osiris, the higher divinity, just as Behemoth and Leviathan do
in relation to Yahweh. It is significant that the opposites have
to work together for a common purpose when it comes to help-
ing the one god, Osiris, to reach the heavenly quaternity. This
quaternity is also personified by the four sons of Horus: Mestha,
Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, who are said to dwell "be-
hind the thigh of the northern heaven," that is, behind the
thigh of Set, whose seat is in the constellation of the Great Bear.
The four sons of Horus are Set's enemies, but on the other hand
they are closely connected with him. They are an analogy of the
four pillars of heaven which support the four-cornered iron
plate. Since three of the sons are often shown with animal heads,
and one with a human head, we may point to a similar state of
affairs in the visions of Ezekiel, from whose cherubim-figures the
well-known symbols of the evangelists (three animals, one angel)
are derived.25 Ezekiel says, furthermore (1 : 22): "Over the heads
of the living creatures [the cherubim] there was the likeness of
a solid plate, shining like terrible crystal, spread out above their
heads," and (1 : 26, RSV): "And above the solid plate that was
over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appear-
ance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was
a likeness as it were of a human form."

*89 In view of the close ties between Israel and Egypt an inter-
mingling of symbols is not unlikely. What is remarkable, how-
ever, is that in Arab tradition the region round the heavenly
Pole is seen in the form of a fish. Qazvini says: "The Pole can

24 Budge, II, p. 243.

25 Daniel 3 : 25 may be of relevance in this connection: the three men in the
burning fiery furnace, who were joined by a fourth, a "son of God."

123

AION

be seen. Round it are the smaller Benat na'sh 26 and dark stars,
which together form the picture of a fish, and in its midst is the
Pole."27 This means that the Pole, which in ancient Egypt
denoted the region of Set and was at the same time the abode of
the four sons of Horus, was contained, so to speak, in the body
of a fish. According to Babylonian tradition Anu has his seat in
the northern heaven; likewise Marduk, as the highest god,
world-creator and ruler of its courses, is the Pole. The Enuma
Elish says of him: "He who fixes the course of the stars of heaven,
like sheep shall pasture the gods all together." 28

*9° At the northern point of the ecliptic is the region of fire
(purgatory and the entrance to the Anu-heaven). Hence the
northern corner of the temple built around the tower at Nippur
was called the kibla (point of orientation). In like manner the
Sabaeans and Mandaeans, when praying, turn towards the
north.29 We might also mention the Mithraic liturgy in this
connection: in the final vision Mithras appears, "holding the
golden shoulder of a young bull. This is the constellation of the
Bear, which moves and turns the heavens round." The text piles
endless fire-attributes on this god, who obviously hails from the
north.30

191 These Babylonian ideas about the significance of the north
make it easier for us to understand why Ezekiel's vision of God
came from that quarter, despite the fact that it is the birthplace
of all evil. The coincidence of opposites is the normal thing in
a primitive conception of God, since God, not being an object
of reflection, is simply taken for granted. At the level of con-
scious reflection, however, the coincidence of opposites becomes
a major problem, which we do everything possible to circum-
vent. That is why the position of the devil in Christian dogma
is so very unsatisfactory. When there are such gaps in our collec-
tive ideas, in the dominants of our conscious orientation, we
can count with absolute certainty on the existence of comple-
mentary or— to be more precise— compensatory developments in
the unconscious. These compensating ideas can be found in the
speculations of alchemy. We can hardly suppose that ideas of

26 Lit., 'daughters of the bier', presumably mourning women who walk ahead of
the coffin. Cf. Ideler, Untersuchungen iiber den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der
Sternnamen, p. 11. 27 Ibid., p. 15. 28 Jeremias, p. 22.

29 Ibid., p. 33. 30 Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, pp. 8ff.

124

THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE FISH SYMBOL

this sort remained totally unconscious so far as the adepts were
concerned. What they were aiming at was a more or less con-
scious restoration of the primitive God-image. Hence they were
able to propound paradoxes as shocking as that of God's love
glowing in the midst of hell-fire,31 which is represented as being
no more than the Christian conception of God in a new but
necessary relation to everything hell stands for. Above all it
was Jakob Bohme who, influenced by alchemy and the Cabala
equally, envisaged a paradoxical God-image in which the good
and the bad aspects appertain to the same divine being in a way
that bears comparison with the views of Clement of Rome.
'92 Ancient history gives us a divided picture of the region to
the north: it is the seat of the highest gods and also of the ad-
versary; thither men direct their prayers, and from thence blows
an evil pneuma, the Aquilo, "by the name whereof is to be
understood the evil spirit"; 32 and finally, it is the navel of the
world and at the same time hell. Bernard of Clairvaux apos-
trophizes Lucifer thus: "And dost thou strive perversely to-
wards the north? The more thou dost hasten toward the heights,
the more speedily shalt thou go down to thy setting."33 The
"king of the North" in Nostradamus has to be understood in
the light of this passage. At the same time, it is clear from
St. Bernard's words that the heights of power to which Lucifer
strives are still associated with the north.34

31 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 446.

32 Garnerius, in Migne, P.L., vol. 193, col. 49.

33 Tractatus de gradibus superbiae, in Migne, P.L., vol. 182, col. 961.

34 One of the bad qualities of the north wind ("The north wind numbs with
cold" = the numbness of the evil spirit, who "hardens the hearts of the wicked"),
was responsible for an alchemical hypothesis concerning the formation of coral:
"The coral is a kind of vegetable which comes into being in the sea, and has
roots and branches, and in its original state is moist. But when the wind blows
north, it hardens, and turns into a red substance, which the seafarer sees under
the water and cuts off; then, when it comes out of the water, it turns into a stone,
of a red colour." ("Allegoriae super librum Turbae," Art. aurif., 1593, I, p. 143.)

125

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

/. The Medusa

*93 Michel Nostradamus, physician and astrologer, must surely
have been acquainted with alchemy, since this art was practised
mainly by physicians. Whether he knew that the fish was a sym-
bol for the arcane substance and the lapis is perhaps question-
able, but it is more than likely that he had read the classics of
alchemy. Of these one of the greatest authorities is the Turba
philosophorum, which had been translated very early (nth-
12th cent.) from the Arabic into Latin. At about the same time,
or a little later, its appendices were also translated, namely the
"Allegoriae super librum Turbae," the "Allegoriae sapientum
supra librum Turbae XXIX distinctiones," 1 together with
the "Aenigmata ex Visione Arislei" and "In Turbam philoso-
phorum exercitationes." The Turba belongs to the same sphere
of thought as the Tabula smaragdina, and hence is one of those
late Hellenistic products that were transmitted to us by the
Arabs, mainly, perhaps, through the Neoplatonic school of
Harran (Thabit ibn Qurrah and others), which flourished at
the beginning of the eleventh century.2 The ideas preserved in
these treatises are 'Alexandrian," and the recipes, particularly
those set forth in the "Allegoriae super librum Turbae," adhere
closely to the spirit and letter of the Papyri Graecae Magicae.3

*94 Now these 'Allegoriae" 4 are our earliest source for the
alchemical fish symbolism. For this reason we may assign a

1 This treatise was not printed together with the Turba, like the others, hut it
appears to belong to the same category. The 28th Distinctio contains the "Dicta
Belini" (Belinus = Apollonius of Tyana).

2 Cf. Ruska, Turba Philosophorum.

3 Cf. the edn. of Preisendanz.

4 Printed in Artis auriferae (1593), I, pp. i3gff.; Theatrum chemicum, V, pp. 64ft".;
and Manget, Bibliotheca chemica curiosa (1702), I, pp. 494s.

126

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

fairly early date to the alchemical fish— before the eleventh cen-
tury, in any case.5 There is nothing to suggest that it is of Chris-
tian origin. That, however, did not prevent it from becoming-
through the transformation of the arcane substance which it had
at first represented— a symbol of the lapis, the latter term denot-
ing the prima materia as well as the end product of the process,
variously called lapis philosophorum, elixir vitae, aurum nos-
trum, infans, puer} filius philosophorum, Hermaphroditus, and
so on. This filius, as I have shown elsewhere, was regarded as a
parallel of Christ. Thus, by an indirect route, the alchemical fish
attains the dignity of a symbol for the Salvator mundi. Its father
is God, but its mother is the Sapientia Dei, or Mercurius as
Virgo. The filius philosophorum (or macrocosmi), otherwise the
lapis, means nothing other than the self, as I have explained in
a detailed examination of its various attributes and peculiari-
ties.

*95 The text containing the earliest reference to the fish runs:
"There is in the sea a round fish, lacking bones and cortex, and
having in itself a fatness, a wondrous virtue, which, if it is
cooked on a slow fire until its fatness and moisture entirely
disappear ... is saturated with sea-water until it begins to
shine." 6 This recipe is repeated in another, possibly later,
treatise of the same kind, the "Aenigmata philosophorum." 7
Here the "piscis" has become a "pisciculus," and "lucescat" has
become "candescat." Common to both treatises is the ironic
conclusion of the recipe: When the citrinitas {xanthosis, 'yel-
lowing') appears, "there is formed the collyrium [eyewash] of
the philosophers." If they wash their eyes with it, they will
easily understand the secrets of the philosophy.

»96 This round fish is certainly not a fish in the modern sense,
but an invertebrate. This is borne out by the absence of bones
and "cortex," which in medieval Latin simply means a mussel-

5 I am not counting the fish as technical alchemical material, in which capacity
it was of course known even to the Greek alchemists. I would mention, for in-
stance, the "procedure of Salmanas" (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, V, viii, 5) for produc-
ing the "round pearl." Fish-glue was often used as an agglutinant.

6 "Allegoriae," in Art. aurif., I, p. 141: "Est in mari piscis rotundus, ossibus et
corticibus carens, et habet in se pinguedinem, mirificam virtutem, quae si lento
igne coquatur, donee eius pinguedo et humor prorsus recedit . . . et quousque
lucescat, aqua maris imbuatur."

1 "Aenigmata," in Art. aurif., I, p. 149.

127

AION

shell or mollusc.8 At all events, it is some kind of round organ-
ism that lives in the sea, presumably a scyphomedusa or jelly-
fish, which abounded in the seas of the ancient world. Its
free-swimming form, the acrospedote medusa, has a round, bell-
or disc-shaped body of radial construction, which as a rule is
divided into eight sections by means of four perradials and four
interradials (whose angles may again be halved by adradials).
Like all Cnidaria9 or Nematophora 10 (to which class the Scy-
phomedusae belong), they are equipped with tentacles; these
contain the thread-cells or nematocysts with which they poison
their prey.
J97 Our text remarks that when the "round fish" is warmed or
cooked on a slow fire it "begins to shine." In other words, the
heat already present in it becomes visible as light. This suggests
that the author of the recipe was influenced either by Pliny him-
self or by some one in the same tradition. Pliny describes a fish
—the stella marina, 'star of the sea'— which, he says, has puzzled
several great philosophers.11 This fish was said to be hot and
burning, and to consume as with fire everything it touched
in the sea.12 Pliny mentions the stella marina13 in the same
breath 14 as the pulmo marinus, which swims freely on the sur-
face,15 and attributes to the latter so fiery a nature that when
you rub it with a stick, you can straightway use the stick as a
torch.16 From this we might conclude that our author did not
take zoological distinctions too seriously, and may have con-
fused the stella marina with the pulmones. However that may
be, the Middle Ages with its passion for symbols eagerly seized
on the legend of the "starfish." Nicholas Caussin regarded the
"fish" as a starfish and describes it as such. This animal, he says,
generates so much heat that it not only sets fire to everything it
touches but also cooks its own food. Hence it signifies the "veri

8 See du Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis, s.v.
"cortex." [In the Swiss Gesammelte Werke, II, p. 59, n. 27, "corticibus" in this
same passage is translated as "scales." — Editors.]

9 From Kvidr], urtica, 'nettle.' Hence Pliny's "sea-nettle" (Hist, nat., XXXII, xi, 53).

10 From vrjfjia, 'thread, tentacle.'

11 Caussin (Polyhistor symbolicus, 1618, s.v. "stella") cites Aristotle as a source.

12 Hist, nat., IX, 60. Cf. trans, by Rackham and Jones, III, pp. 346-48.

13 This could be conceived as a starfish, since, as Pliny says, it has a hard exterior.

14 Hist, nat., XVIII, 35. 15 IX, 47 (Rackham /Jones trans., Ill, p. 220).
16 XXXII, 10.

128

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

amoris vis inextinguibilis" (the inextinguishable power of true
love).17

*98 Such an interpretation sounds very strange to modern ears.
But for the Middle Ages "alles Vergangliche ist nur ein Gleich-
nis" was literally true: all ephemeral things were but a symbol
of the divine drama, which to modern man has become almost
meaningless. Picinellus interprets the fish in the same way, the
only difference being that his amplification is much more elab-
orate. "This fish," he says, "glows forever in the midst of the
waters, and whatsoever it touches grows hot and bursts into
flames." This glow is a fire— the fire of the Holy Ghost. He cites
as his authority Ecclesiasticus 48 : 1,18 and refers also to the fiery
tongues of the Pentecostal miracle. The miraculous fact that the
fire of the Stella marina does not go out in the water reminds
him of the "divinae gratiae efficacitas" (action of divine grace),
which sets on fire the hearts that are drowned in a "sea of sins."
For the same reason the fish means charity and divine love, as
the Song of Solomon 8 : 7 testifies: "Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it." The fish, so our author
supposes, spreads a radiance about itself from the first moment
of its life and thus is an emblem of religion, by whose light the
faithful live.

*99 As the quotation from the Song of Solomon shows, the in-
terpretation of the burning starfish brings out its connection
with profane love. Picinellus even says that the starfish is the
"hieroglyph of a lover's heart," whose passion not even the
entire sea can extinguish, no matter whether his love be divine
or profane. This fish, says our author inconsequently, burns but
gives no light. He quotes St. Basil: "Then conceive in your
mind a deep pit, impenetrable darkness, fire that has no bright-
ness, having all fire's power of burning, but without any light.
. . . Such a conception describes the fire of hell." 19 This fire is
"concupiscentia," the "scintilla voluptatis" (spark of lechery).

200 it is curious how often the medieval symbolists give dia-
metrically opposed interpretations of the same symbol, ap-
parently without becoming aware of the far-reaching and

17 Polyhistor symbolicus, p. 414.

18 "And Elias the prophet stood up, as a fire; and his word burnt like a
torch" (DV).

19 Homilia in Ps. 33, in Migne, P.G., vol. 29, col. 371.

129

AION

dangerous possibility that the unity of the symbol implies
the identity of the opposites. Thus we can find certain views in
alchemy which maintain that God himself "glows" in this sub-
terranean or submarine20 fire. The "Gloria mundi," for in-
stance, says: 21

Take fire or unslaked lime, which the Philosophers say grows on
trees. In this fire God himself glows in divine love. . . . Likewise
the Natural Master says regarding the art of fire, that Mercurius is
to be decomposed . . . and fixed in the unquenchable or living
fire, wherein God himself glows, together with the sun, in divine
love, for the solace of all men; and without this fire can the art
never be brought to perfection. It is also the fire of the Philosophers,
which they keep hidden away and concealed. ... It is also the
noblest fire which God created upon earth, for it has a thousand
virtues. To these things the teacher replies that God has bestowed
upon it such virtue and efficacy . . . that with this fire is mingled
the Godhead itself. And this fire purifies, as purgatory does in the
lower regions.22

20 This recalls the Vision of Arisleus, where the philosophers in the glass-house
at the bottom of the sea suffer great torment on account of the extraordinary
heat. (Art. aurif., I, pp. i46ff., and Ruska, "Die Vision des Arisleus," pp. 22ff.)

21 Mus. herm. (1678), pp. 246f. The "Gloria mundi" is an anonymous treatise,
and it remains uncertain whether it was originally written in Latin or not. So
far as is known, it was printed for the first time in 1620, in German. To the best
of my knowledge it was first mentioned in the treatises of the 17th cent. It was
highly esteemed and was considered especially dangerous. In the Theatr. chem.
(1661), VI, pp. 513ft., there is a long extract from it, conjuring the reader to be
discreet: "I will that all those who possess this book be admonished and besought
for the love of Jesus Christ, that they conceal this art from all such as are puffed
up, vainglorious, unjust oppressors of the poor, proud, worldly, scoffers, con-
temners, false accusers, and such unworthy folk, nor permit this writing to come
into the hands of such, if they would escape the wrath of God and the punish-
ments which he is wont to bring down upon those that are presumptuous and
profane."

22 "Recipito ignem, vel calcem vivam, de qua Philosophi loquuntur, quod in
arboribus crescat, in quo (igne) Deus ipse ardet amore divino. . . . Item,
Naturalis Magister ait ad artem hanc de igne, Mercurium putrefaciendum . . .
et fixandum in igne indelebili, vel vivo, quo in Deus ipse ardeat, sed cum sole
in amore divino, ad solatium omnium hominum; et absque isto igne ars
numquam perfici poterit. Item, ignis Philosophorum quem occultatum occlu-
sumque illi habent. . . . Item, ignis nobilissimus ignis est, quem Deus in terra
creavit, millenas enim virtutes habet. Ad haec respondet didascalus quod Deus
tantam virtutem efficaciamque tribuerit . . . ut divinitas ipsa cum hoc igne
commixta siet. Et iste ignis purificat, tamquam purgatorium in inferno . . ."

13O

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

The fire is "inextinguishable." "The Philosophers call this fire
the fire of the Holy Ghost." 23 It unites Mercurius with the sun
"so that all three make but one thing, which no man shall part
asunder." 24 "Just as in these three God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost are united, [i.e., as] the Holy Trinity
in three Persons, and there yet remains the one single true God,
so also the fire unites these three things: body, spirit, and soul,
that is, Sun, Mercurius, and Soul."25 "In this invisible fire the
mystery of the Art is enclosed, as God the Father, Son, and
Spirit in three Persons is verily included in one essence." 26
This fire is "fire and water at once." The Philosophers name it
the "living fire" in honour of God, "who mingles himself with
himself in the living water." 27

201 Another treatise says of the water that it is the "hiding-place
and dwelling-place of the whole treasure." 28 For in its midst is
the "fire of Gehenna" which "contains this engine of the world
in its own being." 29 The fire is caused by the "primum mobile"
and is kindled by the influence of the stars. It never ceases its
universal motion and is continually lit through the "influence
of celestial forces." 30

202 It is an "unnatural" fire, "contrary to nature." It puts bodies
to the torture, it is itself the dragon that "burns furiously like
hell-fire." 31 The life-spirit dwelling in nature, Phyton, has a
double aspect: there is an infernal form of it, namely hell-fire,
from which a hellish bath can be prepared. The treatise of
Abraham Eleazar speaks of Phyton as a "god." 32

23 "Philosophi hunc ignem Spiritus Sancti ignem appellant."

24 ". . . adeo lit omneis tres, una res fiant, quas nemo separaturus siet."

25 "Pari modo quo in hisce tribus sese uniunt, Deus pater, Deus Alius et Deus
spiritus sanctus, S. S. Trinitas in tres personas et tamen unicus verus Deus
remanet; ita quoque ignis unit hasce tres res: utpote corpus, spiritum et animam,
hoc est, Solem, Mercurium et Animam" (p. 247).

26 "In igni hoc invisibili artis mysterium inclusum est, quemadmodum tribus in
personis Deus Pater, Filius et Spiritus S. in una essentia vere conclusus est"
(p. 248).

27 ". . . qui seipsum sese in vivam aquam miscet" (p. 247). Presumably taken
over from the "troubled" water of the pool of Bethesda (John 5 : 2).

28 "Occultatio et domicilium omnis thesauri."

29 "Continens hanc machinam mundi in suo esse."

30 Sendivogius, "Novi luminis chemici," Mus. herm., p. 607.

31 Ripley, "Duodecim portarum," Theatr. chem., II, p. 128.

32 Uraltes Chymisches Werk (1760), pp. 79 and 81.

131

AION

203 According to Blaise de Vigenere, the fire has not two but
four aspects: the intelligible, which is all light; the heavenly,
partaking of heat and light; the elemental, pertaining to the
lower world and compounded of light, heat, and glow (ardor);
and finally the infernal, opposed to the intelligible, glowing
and burning without any light.33 Here again we encounter the
quaternity which the ancients associated with fire, as we saw
from the Egyptian conception of Set and the four sons of
Horus,34 and from Ezekiel's vision of the fiery region to the
north. It is not at all likely that Vigenere was thinking of Ezekiel
in this connection.35

204 In the "Introitus apertus" of Philalethes the arcane substance
is named "chalybs" (steel). This, he says, is the "auri minera"
(the prima materia of the gold), "the true key of our Work,
without which no skill can kindle the fire of the lamp/' Chalybs
is a "spirit pre-eminently pure," a "secret, infernal, and yet most
volatile fire,"36 the "wonder of the world, the system of the
higher powers in the lower. For this reason the Almighty has
assigned to it a most glorious and rare heavenly conjunction,
even that notable sign whose nativity is declared throughout the
Philosophical East to the furthest horizon of its hemisphere.
The wise Magi saw it at the [beginning of the] era, and were
astonished, and straightway they knew that the most serene
King was born in the world. Do you, when you see his star, fol-
low it to the cradle, and there you shall behold the fair infant.
Cast aside your defilements, honour the royal child, open your
treasure, offer a gift of gold; and after death he will give you

33 "De igne et sale," Theatr. chem., VI, p. 39.

34 They are also the sons of Set, in so far as Heru-ur and Set have one body with
two heads. [For the association of fire and north, see pp. 99 and 124.]

35 The quaternary symbols that appear spontaneously in dreams always point, so
far as I can see, to totality or the self. Fire means passion, affects, desires, and the
emotional driving-forces of human nature in general, that is, everything which
is understood by the term "libido." (Cf. Symbols of Transformation, Part II,
chs. 2 and 3.) When the alchemists attribute a quaternary nature to the fire, this
amounts to saying that the self is the source of energy.

36 Hell-fire is identical with the devil, who, on the authority of Artefius ("Clavis
maioris sapientiae," Theatr. chem., IV, p. 237), has an outer body made of air
and an inner one of fire.

132

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

flesh and blood, the supreme Medicine in the three monarchies
of the earth."37

205 This passage is particularly interesting because it allows us
to look deep into the world of obscure archetypal ideas that fill
the mind of the alchemist. The author goes on to say that the
steel, which is at the same time the "infernal fire," the "key of
our Work," is attracted by the magnet, for which reason "our
magnet" is the true "minera" (raw material) of the steel. The
magnet has a hidden centre which "with an archetic appetite38
turns towards the Pole, where the virtue of the steel is exalted."
The centre "abounds in salt"— evidently the sal sapientiae, for
immediately afterwards the text says: "The wise man will re-
joice, but the fool will pay small heed to these things, and will
not learn wisdom, even though he see the outward-turned cen-
tral Pole marked with the notable sign 39 of the Almighty."

206 In the Pole is found the heart of Mercurius, "which is the
true fire wherein its Lord has his rest. He who journeys through
this great and wide sea may touch at both Indies, may guide his
course by the sight of the North Star, which our Magnet will
cause to appear unto you." This is an allusion to the mystic
journey, the "peregrinatio." As I have explained elsewhere, it
leads to the four quarters, here indicated by the two Indies—

37 Philalethes, "Introitus apertus," Mus. herm., pp. 654!:.: ". . . ignis infernalis,
secretus . . . mundi miraculum, virtutum superiorum in inferioribus systema,
quare signo ilium notabili notavit Omnipotens cuius nativitas per Orientem in
Horizonte Hemisphaerii sui philosophicum annunciatur. Viderunt Sapientes in
Evo Magi, et obstupuerunt statimque agnoverunt Regera serenissimum in mundo
natum. Tu cum ejus Astra conspexeris, sequere ad usque cunabula, ibi videbis
infantem pulcrum, sordes semovendo, regium puellum honora, gazam aperi,
auri donum offeras, sic tandem post mortem tibi carnem sanguinemque dabit,
summam in tribus Terrae Monarchiis medicinam."

(Cf. Waite, trans., The Hermetic Museum Restored and Enlarged, II, pp.
i66f.) Philalethes ("lover of truth") is a pseudonym. Waite (The Works of
Thomas Vaughan: Eugenius Philaletha) conjectures the Hermetic philosopher
Vaughan (1621-65), an hypothesis that is doubtful for several reasons. See also
Waite, Lives of Alchemy stical Philosophers, p. 187, and Ferguson, Bibliotheca
Chemica, II, pp. 194 and 197.

38 From the Paracelsan concept of the "Archeus." See my "Paracelsus the Physi
cian," par. 39 n. 56. Ruland (Lexicon of Alchemy, p. 36) defines: "Archeus
is a most high, exalted, and invisible spirit, which is separated from bodies, is
exalted, and ascends; it is the occult virtue of Nature, universal in all things, the
artificer, the healer . . . the dispenser and composer of all things."

39 Probably magnetism is meant.

133

AION

East, West — and by the turning of the compass to the north.40
Together they form a cross, i.e., a quaternity, which characterizes
the nature of the Pole. For from the Pole the four directions
radiate out, and also the division of the hemispheres (east and
west of the Greenwich meridian). Thus the northern hemi-
sphere resembles the round body of the hydromedusa, whose
spherical surface is divided by four (or multiples of four) radials,
and therefore looks like a globe seen from the Pole.

207 In this connection I would like to mention the dream of a
twenty-year-old student, who got into a state of confusion when
he found that the philosophical faculty for which he had opted
did not suit him. He could discover no reason for this. His dis-
orientation reached the point where he simply did not know
what profession he wanted to take up. Then a dream came to
his help and showed him his goal in the fullest sense:

208 He dreamt that he was walking in a wood. Gradually this
grew more and more lonely and wild, and finally he realized
that he was in a primeval forest. The trees were so high and the
foliage so thick that it was almost dark on the ground. All trace
of a path had long since disappeared, but, driven on by a vague
sense of expectation and curiosity, he pressed forward and soon
came to a circular pool, measuring ten to twelve feet across. It
was a spring, and the crystal-clear water looked almost black in
the dark shadows of the trees. In the middle of the pool there
floated a pearly organism, about eighteen inches in diameter,
that emitted a faint light. It was a jelly-fish.*0* Here the dreamer
awoke with a violent emotion: he decided there and then to
study science, and he kept to this decision. I must emphasize
that the dreamer was not under any psychological influence that
might have suggested such an interpretation. The conclusion he
drew from the dream was undoubtedly the right one, but it does
not by any means exhaust the meaning of the symbol. The
dream is archetypal — a "big" dream. The wood that grows dusky
and turns into a primeval forest means entry into the uncon-
scious. The round pool with the jelly-fish in it represents a
three-dimensional mandala, the self: wholeness as the goal to
which the "archetic appetite" points, the magnetic north which
gives the traveller his bearings on the "sea of the world."

40 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 457.

40a [Cf. Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 85 (Brit, edn., p. 91).]

134

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

209 Turning back to our text, I would emphasize, by way of
recapitulation, that the infernal fire is nothing other than the
Deus absconditus (hidden God) who dwells at the North Pole
and reveals himself through magnetism. His other synonym is
Mercurius, whose heart is to be found at the Pole, and who
guides men on their perilous voyage over the sea of the world.
The idea that the whole machinery of the world is driven by the
infernal fire at the North Pole, that this is hell, and that hell is
a system of upper powers reflected in the lower— this is a shat-
tering thought. But the same note is struck by Meister Eckhart
when he says that, on returning to his true self, he enters an
abyss "deeper than hell itself." Scurrilous as it is, the alchem-
ical idea cannot be denied a certain grandeur. What is particu-
larly interesting, psychologically, is the nature of the image: it is
the projection of an archetypal pattern of order,41 the mandala,
which represents the idea of totality. The centering of the image
on hell, which at the same time is God, is grounded on the
experience that highest and lowest both come from the depths
of the soul, and either bring the frail vessel of consciousness to
shipwreck or carry it safely to port, with little or no assistance
from us. The experience of this "centre" is therefore a numi-
nous one in its own right.

210 Picinellus feels that his Stella maris, "this fish which burns
in the midst of the water but gives no light," besides meaning
the Holy Ghost, love, grace, and religion, also symbolizes some-
thing in man, namely his tongue, speech, and powers of expres-
sion, for it is in these faculties that all psychic life is manifest.
He is evidently thinking of an instinctive, unreflecting psychic
activity, because at this point he cites James 3:6: "And the
tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity among our members, defil-
ing the whole body, setting on fire the wheel of birth, and set
on fire by hell." 42

211 Hence the evil "fish" coincides with our untamed and
apparently untameable propensities, which, like a "small fire
that sets a great forest ablaze,"43 defiles the whole body and

41 "The Psychology of Eastern Meditation," pars. 9421!.

42 Ecclesiasticus 9 : 18 (Vulg. 25): "A man full of tongue is terrible in his city"
(DV). Conversely, the fiery tongue is an allegory (or symbol?) of the Holy Ghost:
"doven tongues, as of fire" (Acts 2:3). 43 James 3 : 5 (RSV).

135

AION

even sets on fire the "wheel of birth." The rpoxo? r^ yeveWo*
(rota nativitatis) is a distinctly curious expression to use in this
connection. The wheel, it is explained, symbolizes the circle or
course or cycle of life. This interpretation presupposes ideas akin
to Buddhism, if we are not to conceive the wheel merely as the
banal statistical cycle of births and deaths. How the wheel could
ever be set on fire is a difficult question that cannot be answered
without further reflection. We must consider, rather, that it is
meant as a parallel to the defilement of the whole body— in
other words, a destruction of the soul.

Ever since the Timaeus it has been repeatedly stated that
the soul is a sphere.44 As the anima mundi, the soul revolves
with the world wheel, whose hub is the Pole. That is why the
"heart of Mercurius" is found there, for Mercurius is the anima
mundi*5 The anima mundi is really the motor of the heavens.
The wheel of the starry universe is reflected in the horoscope,
called the "thema" of birth. This is a division of the heavens
into twelve houses, calculated at the moment of birth, the first
house coinciding with the ascendent. Divided up in this way the
firmament looks like a wheel turning, and the astronomer
Nigidius46 is said to have received the name Figulus ("potter")
because the wheel of heaven turns like a potter's wheel.47 The
"thema" (that which is "set" or "ordained") is indeed a rpoxos,
'wheel'. The basic meaning of the horoscope is that, by mapping
out the positions of the planets and their relations to one an-
other (aspects), together with the distribution of the signs of the
zodiac at the cardinal points, it gives a picture first of the psychic
and then of the physical constitution of the individual. It rep-
resents, in essence, a system of original and fundamental quali-
ties in a person's character, and can therefore be regarded as an
equivalent of the individual psyche. Priscillian (d. 385) evi-
dently took the wheel in this sense. He says of Christ: "He
alone has the power to join together the Pleiades and to loose
the bands of Orion. Knowing the changes of the firmament and
destroying the wheel of generation, he has overcome the day of

44 Psychology and Alchemy, par. 109.

45 "The Spirit Mercurius," par. 263. Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 208.

46 p. Nigidius Figulus lived in the 1st cent. b.c.

47 Hertz, De P. Nigidii Figuli Studiis atque operibus, p. 5.

136

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

our birth by the renewal of baptism."48 From this it is plain
that in the fourth century the wheel of birth was in fact re-
garded as the horoscope. "Setting fire to the wheel" is therefore
a figurative expression for a catastrophic revolt of all the origi-
nal components of the psyche, a conflagration resembling panic
or some other uncontrollable, and hence fatal outburst of emo-
tion.49 The total nature of the catastrophe is explained by the
central position of the so-called "tongue," the diabolical ele-
ment whose destructiveness is an essential part of every psyche.
Seen in this light, the Stella maris stands for the fiery centre in
us from which creative or destructive influences come.

2. The Fish

2*3 In our discussion of medieval fish symbolism we have so far
been concerned with a fish only in name, the jelly-fish, without
taking due account of the fact that this is not a fish at all in the
zoological sense, and— more important still— is not shaped like
one. It was simply the description of the "round fish" that
brought it to our attention. That, however, was not the case in
the Middle Ages, for we have the testimony of a sixteenth-
century adept, Theobald de Hoghelande, which shows that he
at least understood the fish to be a real fish. Listing the numer-
ous synonyms for the tincture, he remarks: "Likewise they com-
pared it to fishes. Hence Mundus says in the Turba: Take one
part fish-gall and one part calf's urine, etc. And in the 'Aenig-
mata sapientum' it says: There is in our sea a small round fish,
without bones or legs [cruribus]." 50 Since the gall mentioned in
the quotation can only come from a real fish, Hoghelande obvi-
ously took the "small round fish" to be a real one, and since one
can imagine a fish without bones, but hardly without skin or
some kind of integument, the incomprehensible "corticibus" of

48 Tract. I, 31, in Opera. For Christ as destroyer of Heimarmene see Pistis
Sophia, Mead trans., p. 17.

49 Fire in this sense often appears in dreams.

50 Hoghelande, "Liber de alchemiae difficultatibus," Theatr. chem., I, p. 163.
The quotation from Mundus in the Turba (Ruska, p. 128) runs: "Take there-
fore one part white gum at an intense heat, and one part calf's urine, and
one part fish-gall, and one part substance of the gum, without which it cannot
be made free from error." "Mundus" is a corruption of "Parmenides," due to
Arabic transcription: (Bar)Mnds. See Ruska, p. 25.

137

AION

the original version51 had to be changed into "cruribus" (legs).
Of course, fishes don't have legs either. But this passage from a
sixteenth-century text proves that the "small round fish" of the
"Aenigmata" was understood, in alchemical tradition, as a real
fish and not as a jelly-fish. A round and transparent fish of a
peculiar sort, without "cortices," is described in the Cyranides:
the "cinedian fish" lives in the sea on the shores of Syria, Pales-
tine, and Libya, is six fingers long, and is a "pisciculus rotun-
dus." It has two stones in its head and another one in the third
vertebra of the tail (spondilo), or notochord. This stone is espe-
cially potent and is used as a love-potion.52 The cinedian stone
is practically unknown, because it is very rare. It is also called
"opsianus," 53 which is interpreted as "serotinus" (of late growth
or origin) and "tardus" (slow, hesitant). It pertains to Saturn.
"This stone is twin or twofold: the one is opaque and black, but
the other though black is brilliant and shining like a mirror." 54
This is the stone which many seek, without finding it: for it is
the dragon's stone (dracontius lapis).55
214 The only thing that can be elicited with certainty from this
involved description is that the animal in question must be a
vertebrate, and is therefore presumably a genuine fish. What
exactly is the justification for calling it "round" is far from
clear. It is obvious that the fish is mainly a mythologem, since
it is said to contain the dragon's stone. This stone was known to
Pliny 56 anc[ a}so to the medieval alchemists, who named it
draconites, dracontias, or drachates51 It was reputed to be a
precious stone, which could be obtained by cutting off the head
of a sleeping dragon. But it becomes a gem only when a bit of
the dragon's soul remains inside,58 and this is the "hate of the
monster as it feels itself dying." The gem is of a white colour,

51 "Ossibus et corticibus carens." [Cf. supra, p. 128 n. 8.]

52 Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v. "ligaturae": "Corrigia or ligatura of Aphrodite.
Ligaturae, alligaturae and alligamenta are amulets for dispelling diseases. Subal-
ligaturae are magic draughts [poisons], precautionary measures [spells]," etc.

53 Opsianos lithos = 'black stone,' obsidian.

54 "Iste lapis est geminus vel duplex: unus quidem est obscurus et niger, alter
autem niger quidem, lucidus et splendidus est sicut speculum."

55 Delatte, Textes latins et vieux francais relatifs aux Cyranides, Fasc. XCIII,
p. 56. 56 Hist, nat., XXXVII, 10. 57 Ruland, Lexicon, pp. 128-29.

58 Ibid., p. 128: "But unless it is removed while they [the serpents] are alive, it
will never become a precious stone."

138

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

and a powerful alexipharmic. Even though there are no dragons
nowadays, the text says, these draconites are occasionally found
in the heads of water-snakes. Ruland asserts that he has seen
such stones, blue or black in colour.

215 The cinedian stone has a double nature, though, as the text
shows, it is not at all clear.59 One might almost conjecture that
its double nature consisted originally in a white and a black
variety, and that a copyist, puzzled by the contradiction, in-
serted "niger quidem" ('though black'). But Ruland distinctly
emphasizes that "the colour of the Draconite is white." 60 Its
affinity with Saturn may shed light on this dilemma. Saturn, in
astrology the "star of the sun," is alchemically interpreted as
black; it is even called "sol niger" and has a double nature as
the arcane substance,61 being black outside like lead, but white
inside. Johannes Grasseus cites the opinion of the Augustinian
monk Degenhardus concerning the lead: the lead of the Philos-
ophers, named lead of the air (Pb aeris), contains the "shining
white dove" which is called the "salt of the metals." 62 Vigenere
assures us that lead, "than which nothing is more opaque," can
be turned into "hyacinth" and back again to lead.63 Quicksilver,
says Mylius,64 comes from the "heart of Saturn," in fact is Saturn,
the bright silveriness of mercury contrasting with the "black-
ness" of lead. The "bright" water65 that flows from the plant
Saturnia is, according to Sir George Ripley, "the most perfect
water and the bloom of the world." 66 How old this idea is can
be seen from the remark of Hippolytus,67 that Chronos (Saturn)
is a "power of the colour of water, and all-destructive."

216 In view of all this, the double nature of the cinedian stone
might signify the polarity and union of opposites, which is just
what gives the lapis philosophorum its peculiar significance as

59 Lucidus (see above, n. 54), 'brilliant, shining,' can also mean 'white,' thus con-
trasting with black. But the description would also fit the obsidian.

60 Lexicon, p. 203.

61 "The sacred lead of the wise," from which are extracted mercury, sulphur, and
salt. Cf. Chartier, "Scientia plumbi sacri sapientum," Theatr. chem., VI, p. 571.

62 "Area arcani," ibid., p. 314.

63 "De igne et sale," ibid., p. 131.

64 Philosophia reformata, p. 305.

65 Pantheus, Ars transmutationis metallicae (1519), fol. gr.

66 Opera omnia chemica (1649), P- 31?-

67 Elenchos, V, 16, 2 (Legge trans., I, p. 154).

139

AION

a uniting symbol,68 and hence its magical and divine properties.
Our draconite, too, is endowed with extraordinary powers ("po-
tentissimus valde"), which make it eminently suitable as the
"ligature of Aphrodite," i.e., love-magic. Magic exercises a com-
pulsion that prevails over the conscious mind and will of the
victim: an alien will rises up in the bewitched and proves
stronger than his ego. The only comparable effect capable of
psychological verification is that exerted by unconscious con-
tents, which by their compelling power demonstrate their affin-
ity with or dependence on man's totality, that is, the self and
its "karmic" functions.69 We have already seen that the alchemi-
cal fish symbol points ultimately to an archetype of the order of
magnitude of the self. So it should not surprise us to see that the
principle of "outward uncomeliness," which applies to the lead
and the lapis, is also applied to Christ. The same that is said of
the lapis is said of Christ by Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373): "He is
clothed in figures, he is the bearer of types. . . . His treasure
is hidden and of small account, but when it is laid open, it is
wonderful to look upon." 70

217 In a treatise of the seventeenth century, by an anonymous
French author,71 our strange hybrid, the "round fish," finally
becomes a verifiable vertebrate known to zoology: Echeneis
remora, the common remora or sucking-fish. It belongs to the
mackerel family, and is distinguished by a large, flat, oval-shaped
sucker on the top of the head in place of the dorsal fin. By means
of this it attaches itself either to a larger fish or to a ship's bottom
and in this wise is transported about the world.

218 The text says of this fish:

For that which we take, in order to prepare from it the Philo-
sophical Work, is naught else but that little fish the Echeneis, which
has no blood or spiny bones, and is shut up in that deep mid region

68 Psychology and Alchemy, "The Lapis-Christ Parallel."

69 We could conceive these as hereditary influences, vestiges of ancestral life,
although this idea does not suggest as much as karma does to the Indian.

70 Hymni et sermones, ed. Lamy, II, col. 770.

71 "Fidelissima et Jucunda Instructio ex manuscripto Gallico Philosophi Anonymi
desumpta, per quam Pater filio suo omnia declarat, quae ad compositionem et
praeparationem Lapidis Sapientum sunt necessaria, decern capitibus compre-
hensa." The abbreviated title of this treatise as printed in Vol. VI of Theatr.
chem. is "Instructio de arbore solari."

140

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

of the great universal sea. This little fish is extremely small, alone,
and unique in its shape, but the sea is great and vast, and hence it
is impossible for those to catch it who do not know in what part of
the world it dwells. Believe me verily, that he who, as Theophrastus
says, does not well understand the art by which he can draw down
the moon from the sky and bring it from heaven to earth, and
change it into water and then into earth, will never find the material
of the stone of the wise, for it is not more difficult to perform the one
than to find the other. Yet none the less, when we speak somewhat
in confidence in the ear of a trusted friend, we teach him that
hidden secret of the wise, how he can naturally, speedily, and easily
catch the little fish called Remora, which is able to hold back the
proud vessels of the great Ocean sea (that is the spirit of the world).
Those who are not sons of the art are altogether ignorant and know
not those precious treasures which are concealed by nature in the
precious and heavenly Aqua Vitae of our sea. But, that I may de-
clare to you the clear light of our unique material, or our virgin
soil, and teach you in what wise you may acquire the supreme art
of the sons of wisdom, it is needful that I instruct you concerning
the magnet of the wise, which has the power of attracting the little
fish called Echeneis or Remora from out the centre and depth of
the sea. If it is caught in accordance with nature, it changes in a
natural way first into water and then into earth. And this, when
properly prepared by the cunning secret of the wise, has the power
of dissolving all solid bodies and making them volatile, and of puri-
fying all bodies that are poisoned.72

72 "Quia illud quod accipimus ut opus Philosophicum ex eo praeparemus, nihil
aliud est quam pisciculus Echen[e]is sanguine et ossibus spinosis carens, et in
profunda parte centri magni maris mundi est inclusus. Hie pisc[ic]ulus valde est
exiguus, solus et in sua forma unicus, mare autem magnum et vastum, unde ilium
capere impossibile est illis, qui qua in parte mundi moretur ignorant. Certam
mihi fidem habe, ilium qui ut Theophrastus loquitur, artem illam non callet,
qua Lunam de firmamento trahat, et de coelo super terram adducat, et in aquam
convertat, et postea in terram mutet, nunquam materiam lapidis sapientum
inventurum, unum tamen non est difficilius facere, quam alterum invenire.
Nihilominus tamen, cum fido amico aliquid in au[re]m fideliter dicimus, tunc
ipsum occultum secretum sapientum docemus, quomodo pisc[ic]ulum Remora
dictum naturaliter cito et facile capere possit, qui navigia magni maris Oceani
(hoc est spiritus mundi), superba retinere potest, qui cum filii artis non sint,
prorsus ignari sunt et preciosos thesauros, per naturam in preciosa et coelesti
aqua vitae nostri maris delitescentes, non noverunt. Sed ut clarum lumen unicae
nostrae materiae, seu terrae virgineae nostrae tibi tradam summam artem filiorum
sapientiae, quomodo videlicet illam acquirere possis, te doceam, necesse est ut
prius de magnete sapientum te instruam, qui potestatem habet, pisc[ic]ulum

141

AION

219 We learn from this text that the fish is found, if it can be
found at all, in the centre of the ocean. But the ocean is the
"spirit of the world." Our text, as the above sample shows, de-
rives from a time when alchemy had almost given up its labora-
tory work and was becoming more and more of a philosophy.
For an alchemist living' in the early part of the seventeenth
century, the "spirit of the world" is a somewhat unusual term,
because the expression more commonly used was the "anima
mundi." The world-soul or, in this case, the world-spirit is a
projection of the unconscious, there being no method or appara-
tus which could provide an objective experience of this kind
and thus furnish objective proof of the world's animation. This
idea is nothing more than an analogy of the animating principle
in man which inspires his thoughts and acts of cognition. "Soul"
and "spirit," or psyche as such, is in itself totally unconscious.
If it is assumed to be somewhere "outside," it cannot be any-
thing except a projection of the unconscious. This may mean a
lot or a little, according to the way you look at it. At any rate,
we know that in alchemy "our sea" is a symbol for the uncon-
scious in general, just as it is in dreams. The extremely small fish
that dwells in the centre of the universal sea nevertheless has
the power to stop the largest ships. From the description of the
Echeneis it is evident that the author was acquainted with the
"pisciculus rotundus ossibus et corticibus carens" of the "Aenig-
mata." Our interpretation of the round fish as the self can,
accordingly, be extended to the Echeneis. The symbol of the
self appears here as an "extremely small" fish in the vast ocean
of the unconscious, like a man alone on the sea of the world. Its
symbolization as a fish characterizes the self, in this state, as an
unconscious content. There would be no hope whatever of
catching this insignificant creature if a "magnet of the wise" did
not exist in the conscious subject. This "magnet" is obviously
something a master can teach to his pupil; it is the "theoria,"
the one solid possession from which the adept can proceed. For
the prima materia always remains to be found, and the only

Echen[e]is vel Remora dictum ex centro et profunditate nostri maris attrahendi.
Qui si secundum naturam capitur, naturaliter primo in aquam deinde in terram
convertitur: Quae per artificiosum secretum sapientum debito modo praeparata
potestatem habet, omnia fixa corpora dissolvendi, et volatilia faciendi et omnia
corpora venenata purgandi etc."

142

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

thing that helps him is the "cunning secret of the wise," a theory
that can be communicated.

220 This is affirmed by Bernardus Trevisanus (1406-1490) in his
treatise "De secretissimo philosophorum opere chemico": it was
the sermons of Parmenides in the Turba that first freed him
from error and guided him into the right way.73 But Parmenides
says the same thing as Arisleus74 in the Turba: "Nature is not
improved save through its own nature," 75 and Bernardus adds
by way of confirmation: "Thus our material cannot be im-
proved save through itself." It was the theory of Parmenides
that helped Bernardus on to the right track after much fruitless
laboratory work, and there is a legend that he even succeeded
in making the philosophers' stone. As to the theory, he is obvi-
ously of the opinion that its basic thought is expressed in the
saying quoted above, that "nature" 76 can improve or free itself
from error only in and through itself. The same idea is ex-
pressed in the repeated warning of other treatises not to mix
anything from outside with the content of the Hermetic vessel,
because the lapis "has everything it needs." 77

221 It is not exactly probable that the alchemists always knew
what they were writing, otherwise they would have dropped
dead at their own enormities, and of this there is no sign in the
literature. Who has everything he needs? Even the loneliest
meteor circles round some distant sun, or hesitantly draws near
to a cluster of brother meteors. Everything hangs together with
everything else. By definition, only absolute totality contains
everything in itself, and neither need nor compulsion attaches
it to anything outside. This is undoubtedly the same as the idea
of an absolute God who encompasses everything that exists. But
which of us can pull himself out of the bog by his own pigtail?
Which of us can improve himself in total isolation? Even the
holy anchorite who lives three days' journey off in the desert
not only needs to eat and drink but finds himself utterly and

73 "Liber de alchemia," Theatr. chem., I, p. 795.

74 Arisleus is legendary. He was regarded as the author of the Turba.

75 "Natura non emendatur nisi in sua natura."

76 "Natura" and "naturae," in the language of the Turba, correspond to the
tpvuets of the alchemist Democritus (1st cent.). See Berthelot, Alch. grecs. They are
substances or states of substances.

77 "Omne quo indiget."

143

AION

terribly dependent on the ceaseless presence of God.78 Only
absolute totality can renew itself out of itself and generate itself
anew.

222 What is it, then, that one adept whispers into the ear of
another, fearfully looking round lest any betray them, or even
guess their secret? Nothing less than this: that through this
teaching the One and All, the Greatest in the guise of the Small-
est, God himself in his everlasting fires, may be caught like a
fish in the deep sea. Further, that he may be "drawn from the
deep" by a eucharistic act of integration (called teoqualo, 'God-
eating,' by the Aztecs 79), and incorporated in the human body.

223 This teaching is the secret and "cunning" magnet by virtue
of which the remora ("little in length / mighty in strength")
stops the proud frigates in the sea, an adventure which befell the
quinquereme of the emperor Caligula "in our own day," as
Pliny says in his interesting and edifying tale. The little fish,
that was only half a foot long, had sucked fast to the rudder on
the return journey from Stura to Entium, and had brought the
ship to a standstill. On returning to Rome after this journey,
Caligula was murdered by his soldiers. So the Echeneis turned
out to be an omen, as Pliny points out. The fish played another
such trick on Mark Antony before the naval engagement with
Augustus, during which Antony was killed. Pliny cannot mar-
vel enough at the mysterious powers of the Echeneis. His amaze-
ment obviously impressed the alchemists so much that they
identified the "round fish in our sea" with the remora, and in
this way the remora came to symbolize that extremely small
thing in the vastness of the unconscious which is charged with
such fateful significance: it is the self, the atman, "smaller than
small, greater than great."

224 The alchemical fish symbol, the Echeneis, clearly derives
from Pliny. But fishes also crop up in the writings of Sir George
Ripley.80 What is more, they appear in their "messianic" role:
together with the birds, they bring the stone, just as in the Oxy-
rhynchus sayings of Jesus81 it is the "fowls of the air and the
fishes of the sea and whatsoever is upon or beneath the earth"

78 "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell
with everlasting burnings?" Isaiah 33 : 14.

79 [Cf. "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass," pars. 339,ff. — Editors.]

80 Opera, p. 10. 81 Grenfell and Hunt, New Sayings of Jesus, p. 16.

144

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

that point the way to the kingdom of heaven (motif of the "help-
ful animals"). In Lambspringk's symbols 82 the zodiacal fishes
that move in opposite directions symbolize the arcane substance.
All this theriomorphism is simply a visualization of the uncon-
scious self manifesting itself through "animal" impulses. Some
of these can be attributed to known instincts, but for the most
part they consist of feelings of certainty, beliefs, compulsions,
idiosyncrasies, and phobias that may run directly counter to the
so-called biological instincts without necessarily being patho-
logical on that account. Wholeness is perforce paradoxical in its
manifestations, and the two fishes going in opposite directions,
or the co-operation of birds and fishes, are an instructive illus-
tration of this.83 The arcane substance, as its attributes show,
refers to the self, and so, in the Oxyrhynchus sayings, does the
"kingdom of heaven" or the conjectural "city."

5. The Fish Symbol of the Cathars

225 The use of fishes as symbols for the psychopompos and for
the antithetical nature of the self points to another tradition
that seems to run parallel with the Echeneis. And there is, in
fact, a very remarkable clue to be found, not in the literature
of alchemy, but in heresiology. The document in question
comes from the archives of the Inquisition at Carcassonne, pub-
lished by Benoist in his Histoire des Albigeois et des Vaudois,
in 1691.84 It concerns an alleged revelation which Christ's
favourite disciple John was vouchsafed as he "rested in the
Lord's bosom." John wished to know what Satan's state was be-
fore his fall, and the Lord answered: "He was in such splendour
that he ruled the powers of heaven." He wanted to be like God,
and to this end he descended through the elements of air and
water, and found that the earth was covered with water. Pene-
trating beneath the surface of the earth, "he found two fishes
lying upon the waters, and they were like oxen yoked for
ploughing the whole earth from sunset to sunrise [or, from West
to East] at the command of the invisible Father. And when he

82 Mus. herm., p. 343.

83 Regarding the combination of fish and bird in ancient mythology, cf. Good-
enough, V, pp. 58fL and figs. 63, 66, 69.

84 Cited by Hahn, Geschkhte der Ketzer im Mittelalter, II, pp. 8 15ft.

145

AION

went down, he found hanging clouds which covered the broad
sea. . . . And when he went down, he found set apart there-
from his 'Osob,' which is a kind of fire." On account of the
flames he could not descend any further, so he went back to
heaven and announced to the angels that he was going to set up
his throne on the clouds and be like the All-highest. He then
treated the angels as the unjust steward treated his master's
debtors, whereupon he and the angels were cast out of heaven
by God.85 But God took pity on him and allowed him and his
angels to do what they liked for a week. During this time Satan,
using Genesis 1 as a model, created the world and mankind.

226 A prominent Cathar, John de Lugio, confesses to a similar
belief.86 This belief seems to have been known in Catharist
circles during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, for the convic-
tion that the world was created by the devil is found in many of
the sects. The alchemist Johannes de Rupescissa was in all prob-
ability a member of the Poor Men of Lyons,87 who were influ-
enced by the Cathars. In any case, he could be considered as
a connecting link with this tradition.

227 What strikes us most of all in this text is the fact that it con-
tains the Old Bulgarian word Osob. Karl Meyer, in his Old
Church Slavonic dictionary,88 gives ocoob as ko.t ISiav: ocofo
(osob a) means in Russian, Polish, and Czech 'individual, per-
sonality.' "His osob" could therefore be translated as "that

85 In contradiction to Luke 16 : 8, where "the lord commended the unjust
steward, because he had done wisely."

86 Despite the fact that the sect of this John condemned the Concorricci, with
whom our Johannine revelation originated. In the Summa Fratris Reineri ("De
propriis opinionibus Joh. de Lugio") we read: "He says this world is of the
devil." Hahn, I, p. 580.

87 Rupescissa, La Vertu et la propriete de la quinte essence (1581), p. 31: "Since
it is our intention to comfort and strengthen the poor preachers of the gospel
[hommes evangelisans] by means of our book, to the end that their prayers and
supplications be not in vain and lost in this work, and that they be not greatly
hindered in this pursuit, I will declare and give to them a secret drawn from
the bosom of the secrets of the treasures of Nature, which is a thing truly worthy
of wonderment, and is to be honoured."

In Rupescissa's treatise "De confectione veri lapidis" (in Gratarolus, Verae
alchemiae artisque metallicae, 1561, II, p. 299) there is the following exhortation,
very unusual in alchemical literature: "Credas, vir Evangelice." Presumably, this
was originally an "homme evangelisant."

88 Altkirchenslavisch-griechisches Worterbuch des Codex Suprasliensis.

146

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

which is peculiar to him." 89 This, in the case of the devil, would
naturally be fire.90

228 The idea of the two fishes lying on the waters, yoked like
oxen for ploughing, is very strange and needs some elucidation.
To this end I must recall to the reader St. Augustine's interpre-
tation of the two fishes in the miraculous feeding of the five
thousand: for him they represent the kingly and the priestly
person or power,91 because, like fishes surviving the tempests of
the sea, they outlast the turbulence of the multitude. These two
powers are united in Christ: he is the king and priest.92

229 Although the two fishes in the Cathar text certainly do
not refer to the miraculous fishes, Augustine's interpretation
tells us something of importance about the way people thought
in those days: the fishes were regarded as ruling powers. Since
the text is indubitably heretical and a Bogomil document at
that, there can be no question of a uniform interpretation of the
two fishes as Christ. It may be that they symbolize, as might
easily be conjectured, two different persons or powers, from be-
fore the creation of the world: Satanael the elder son of God,
and Christ the younger. In the thirtieth heresy of his Panarium,
Epiphanius reports that the Ebionites believed in a double son-
ship: "Two, they maintain, were begotten by God, one of them
Christ, the other the devil." 93 This doctrine must obviously
have spread throughout the Near and Middle East, for it was
there that the Bogomil doctrine of Satanael as the demiurge

89 Dragomanov ("Zabelezhki vrkhy slavyanskite religioznoeticheski Legendi," p. 7)
merely remarks about "suum Osob" that, in a Gipsy legend, the devil was
hampered by burning sand when creating the world.

90 Cf. supra, n. 36, on Artefius.

91 "But the two fishes . . . seem to signify those two persons by whom that
people was governed . . . that is, the kingly and the priestly" (De diversis
quaestionibus, LXI, 2; Migne, P.L., vol. 40, col. 48). The derivation of the two
fishes from II Esdras 6 : 49ft. (Soederberg, La Religion des Cathares, p. 97) seems
to me questionable. The passage runs (Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha,
II, p. 579): "Then didst thou preserve two living creatures; the name of the one
thou didst call Behemoth and the name of the other thou didst call Leviathan.
And thou didst separate the one from the other. ..." This image does not fit
in at all with the two fishes mentioned in the Cathar text.

92 "So is our Lord Jesus Christ shown to be our king. He is also our priest for
ever after the order of Melchisedek" (Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus,
LXI, 1).

95 Cap. XVI (Oehler edn., I, p. 266).

147

AION

arose among the Paulicians and Euchites.94 Our document is
nothing but a Latin version of the report in the Panoplia of
Euthymios Zigabenos, which in its turn goes back to the confes-
sion of faith made before the emperor Alexius Comnenus by
the Bogomil bishop Basilius in the year mi.95

23° Note that Satan finds the two fishes before the creation, i.e.,
"in the beginning," when the spirit of God still brooded upon
the dark face of the waters (Gen. 1 : 2). Had it been one fish
only, we could interpret it as a prefiguration of the Redeemer,
as the pre-existent Christ of St. John's gospel, the Logos that
"was in the beginning with God." (Christ himself says in this
document, with reference to John 1:2: "But I shall sit with my
Father.") There are, however, two fishes, joined by a commis-
sure ( = the yoke), which can refer only to the zodiacal fishes.
The zodia are important determinants in horoscopes, modifying
the influence of the planets that have moved into them, or, even
if there are no planets, giving the individual houses a special
character. In the present instance the fishes would characterize
the ascendent, the moment of the world's birth.96 Now we know
that cosmogonic myths are, at bottom, symbols for the coming
of consciousness (though I cannot go into this here).97 The
dawn-state corresponds to the unconscious; in alchemical terms,
it is the chaos, the massa confusa or nigredo; and by means of
the opus, which the adept likens to the creation of the world, the
albedo or dealbatio is produced, the whitening, which is com-
pared sometimes to the full moon, sometimes to sunrise.98 It also
means illumination, the broadening of consciousness that goes
hand in hand with the "work." Expressed psychologically,
therefore, the two fishes which the devil found on the primeval
waters would signify the newly arisen world of consciousness.

23» The comparison of the fishes with a yoke of oxen ploughing
merits special attention. Oxen stand for the motive power of the
plough. In the same way, the fishes represent the driving forces
of the coming world of consciousness. Since olden times the
plough has stood for man's mastery over the earth: wherever

94 Psellus, "De daemonibus," in Ficinus, Auctores Platonici (1497), fol. N. V>.

95 Migne, P.G., vol. 130, cols. i2<)ofl:.

96 This interpretation accords with modern astrological speculations.

97 Concerning such symbols, see Neumann, The Origins and History of Con-
sciousness. 98 Ripley, Chymische Schrifften (1624), P- 25-

148

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

man ploughs, he has wrested a patch of soil from the primal
state and put it to his own use. That is to say: the fishes will
rule this world and subdue it by working astrologically through
man and moulding his consciousness. Oddly enough, the plough-
ing does not begin, like all other things, in the east, but in the
west. This motif turns up again in alchemy. "Know," says Rip-
ley, "that your beginning should be made towards sunset, and
from there you should turn towards midnight, when the lights
cease altogether to shine, and you should remain ninety nights
in the dark fire of purgatory without light. Then turn your
course towards the east, and you will pass through many differ-
ent colours," etc." The alchemical work starts with the descent
into darkness (nigredo), i.e., the unconscious. The ploughing or
mastery of the earth is undertaken "at the command of the
Father." Thus God not only foresaw the enantiodromia that
began in the year 1000, but also intended it. The Platonic
month of the Fishes is to be ruled by two principles. The fishes
in our text are parallel, like the oxen, and point to the same
goal, although one is Christ and the other the Antichrist.

This, roughly, would be the early medieval line of reasoning
(if we can speak of "reasoning" here). I do not know whether
the argument we have outlined was ever discussed consciously.
Yet it would be possible; the Talmudic prophecy concerning
the year 530 (pars. 133ft.) leads one to conjecture astronomical
calculations on the one hand and on the other an astrological
allusion to the sign of Fishes favoured by the Jewish masters.
As against this, it is possible that the fishes in our text are not a
conscious reference to astrological ideas but rather a product
of the unconscious. That the unconscious is quite capable of
"reflections" of this kind we know well enough from dreams
and the analysis of myths and fairytales.100 The image of the
fishes as such belonged to the common stock of conscious ideas
and may— unconsciously— have expressed the meaning in sym-
bolic form. For it was about this time (1 ith cent.) that the Jew-
ish astrologers began calculating the birth of the Messiah in
Pisces, and the universal feeling that a new age had commenced
was given clear expression by Joachim of Flora.

99 Ibid., p. 33L

100 Cf. Laiblin, "Vom mythischen Gehalt unserer Marchen."

AION

233 The text of our Johannine revelation can hardly be earlier,
or much later, than the eleventh century. With the beginning
of this century, which is astrologically the middle of the Pisces
aeon, heresies sprang up everywhere like mushrooms, and at the
same time Christ's adversary, the second fish, alias the devil,
appears as the demiurge. Historically speaking, this idea repre-
sents a kind of Gnostic Renaissance, since the Gnostic demiurge
was regarded as an inferior being from whom all evil comes.101
The significant thing about this phenomenon is its synchro-
nicity, that is, its occurrence at a time that had been fixed
astrologically.

234 That Catharist ideas found their way into alchemy is not
altogether surprising. I have not, however, come across any
texts which would prove that the Catharist fish symbol was
assimilated into the alchemical tradition and so could be held
responsible for Lambspringk's fish symbol, signifying the arcane
substance and its inner antinomy. Lambspringk's symbol ap-
peared not much earlier than the end of the sixteenth century
and represented a revitalization of the archetype. It shows two
reversed fishes swimming in the sea— nostro mari— by which was
meant the aqua permanens or arcane substance. They are des-
ignated "spiritus et anima," and like the stag and unicorn, the
two lions, the dog and wolf, and the two fighting birds, they
indicate the double nature of Mercurius.102

235 If my reflections, which are based on some knowledge of
the symbolic thinking of the Middle Ages, are justified, then
we have here a remarkable confirmation of the views I expressed
in an earlier chapter. With the year 1000 a new world begins,
proclaiming its advent in a strange medley of religious move-
ments such as the Bogomils, Cathari, Albigenses, Waldenses,
Poor Men of Lyons, Brethren of the Free Spirit, Beguins,
Beghards, etc., and in the Holy Ghost Movement of Joachim
of Flora. These movements are also associated with the rise of
alchemy, Protestantism, the Enlightenment, and natural sci-
ence, leading ultimately to the increasingly devilish develop-
ments we have lived to experience in our own day, and to the
evaporation of Christianity under the assaults of rationalism,
intellectualism, materialism, and "realism."

101 According to Irenaeus, the Gnostics held that the demiurge was the younger
brother of Christ. 102 Mus. herm., p. 343.

150

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

236 In conclusion, I would like to give a concrete example of the
way the symbol of the fish springs out of the unconscious autoch-
thonously. The case in question is that of a young woman who
had uncommonly lively and plastic dreams. She was very much
under the influence of her father, who had a materialistic
outlook and was not happily married. She shut herself off from
these unfavourable surroundings by developing, at a very early
age, an intense inner life of her own. As a small child, she re-
placed her parents by two trees in the garden. In her sixth or
seventh year, she dreamt that God had promised her a golden
fish. From this time forth she frequently dreamt of fishes. Later,
a little while before starting psychological treatment on account
of her manifold problems, she dreamt that she was "standing on
the bank of the Limmat and looking down into the water. A
man threw a gold coin into the river, the water became trans-
parent and I could see the bottom.10* There was a coral reef and
a lot of fishes. One of them had a shining silver belly and a
golden back/' During treatment she had the following dream:
"/ came to the bank of a broad, flowing river. I couldn't see
much at first, only water, earth, and rock. I threw the pages with
my notes on them into the water, with the feeling that I was giv-
ing something back to the river. Immediately afterwards I had
a fishing-rod in my hand. I sat down on a rock and started fish-
ing. Still I saw nothing but water, earth, and rock. Suddenly a
big fish bit. He had a silver belly and a golden back. As I drew
him to land, the whole landscape became alive: the rock
emerged like the primeval foundation of the earth, grass and
flowers sprang up, and the bushes expanded into a great forest.
A gust of wind blew and set everything in motion. Then, sud-
denly, I heard behind me the voice of Mr. X [an older man
whom she knew only from photographs and from hearsay, but
who seems to have been some kind of authority for her]. He
said, quietly but distinctly: 'The patient ones in the innermost
realm are given the fish, the food of the deep.' At this moment
a circle ran round me, part of it touching the water. Then I
heard the voice again: 'The brave ones in the second realm may
be given victory, for there the battle is fought/ Immediately

103 The transparency of the water means that attention (value, gold) is given
to the unconscious. It is an offering to the genius of the fountain. Cf. the vision
of the Amitabha Land in my "Psychology of Eastern Meditation."

151

AION

another circle ran round me, this time touching the other bank.
At the same time I saw into the distance and a colourful land-
scape was revealed. The sun rose over the horizon. I heard the
voice, speaking as if out of the distance: 'The third and the
fourth realms come, similarly enlarged, out of the other two.
But the fourth realm'— and here the voice paused for a moment,
as if deliberating— 'the fourth realm joins on to the first.10* It is
the highest and the lowest at once, for the highest and the low-
est come together. They are at bottom one.' " Here the dreamer
awoke with a roaring in her ears.
*37 This dream has all the marks of a "big" dream, and it also
has the quality of something "thought," which is characteristic
of the intuitive type. Even though the dreamer had acquired
some knowledge of psychology by this time, she had no knowl-
edge whatever of the historical fish symbol. The details of the
dream may be commented on as follows: The bank of the river
represents the threshold, so to speak, to the unconscious. Fish-
ing is an intuitive attempt to "catch" unconscious contents
(fishes). Silver and gold, in alchemical language, signify feminine
and masculine, the hermaphrodite aspect of the fish, indicating
that it is a complexio oppositorum.105 It also brings about a
magical animation.106 The older man is a personification of the
archetype of the "wise old man." We know already that the fish
is a "miraculous food," the eucharistic food of the tcAooi. The
first circle that touches the water illustrates the partial integra-
tion of the unconscious. The battle is the conflict of opposites,
maybe between consciousness and the shadow. The second circle
touches the "other bank," where the union of opposites takes
place. In the Indian "quicksilver system" the arcane substance
is called para-da, 'leading to the other shore'; in the West it is
Mercurius.107 The fourth realm, stressed by a weighty pause, is
the One that adds itself to the three and makes all four into a
unity.108 The circles naturally produce a mandala, the outermost
circle paradoxically coinciding with the centre, and recalling

104 Cf. infra, pars, ggsff. 105 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, s.v. "coniunctio."

106 The Ichthys (= Christ or Attis) is the food that bestows (immortal) life.
l07Deussen, Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophic, I, pt. iii, pp. 336ft. and
"The Spirit Mercurius," pars. 282ff.

108 Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 26 and 209, and "A Psychological Approach to
the Dogma of the Trinity," pars. 1845.

152

THE FISH IN ALCHEMY

the old image for God. "God is a circle whose centre is every-
where and the circumference nowhere." 109 The motif of the
first coinciding with the fourth was expressed long ago in the
axiom of Maria: "One becomes two, two becomes three, and
out of the third comes the One as the fourth."
238 The dream sums up in condensed form the whole symbolism
of the individuation process in a person who was totally un-
acquainted with the literature of the subject. Cases of this kind
are by no means rare and ought to make us think. They demon-
strate the existence of an unconscious "knowledge" of the indi-
viduation process and its historical symbolism.

109 [For the source of this saying, see "A Psychological Approach to the Dogma
of the Trinity," p. 155 n. 6. — Editors.]

153

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION
OF THE FISH

*39 We shall now turn to the problem raised by the anonymous
French author of the "Instructio de arbore solari," the problem
of how the fish is caught. The Echeneis exercises an attraction
on ships that could best be compared with the influence of a
magnet on iron. The attraction, so the historical tradition says,
emanates from the fish and brings the vessel, whether powered
by sail or oarsmen, to a standstill.1 I mention this seemingly
unimportant feature because, as we shall see, in the alchemical
view the attraction no longer proceeds from the fish but from a
magnet which man possesses and which exerts the attraction
that was once the mysterious property of the fish. If we bear in
mind the significance of the fish, it is easy to understand why a
powerful attraction should emanate from this arcane centre,
which might aptly be compared with the magnetism of the
North Pole.2 As we shall see in a later chapter, the Gnostics said
the same thing about the magnetic effect of their central figure

i "The Echenai's is a small fish, half a foot in length [semipedalis], and takes its
name from the fact that it holds back a ship by cleaving to it, so that though
winds blow and storms rage, yet the ship seems to stand still as if rooted in the
sea, and cannot be moved. . . . Hence the Latins call it delay (Remora)." (Du
Cange, Glossarium, s.v. "Echenai's." Cited from the ms. of a bestiary.) This pas-
sage is taken verbatim from the Liber etymologiarum (Lib. XII, cap. VI) of
Isidore of Seville. There the name of the fish is "echinus," which strictly speaking
is a sea-urchin. Because of its radial structure, this creature comes into the same
class as the starfish and the jelly-fish. (For the "Instructio," see supra, p. 140, n. 71.)
2 That the power of the Echeneis was understood to be magnetic is clear from the
legend that if a salted Echeneis is let down into a mine it will attract the gold
and bring it to the surface. Cf. Masenius, Speculum imaginum veritatis occultae
(1714), s.v. "Echeneis." "Magnet" is also the name given to sal ammoniac, which,
when added to metallic solutions, "instantly draws all that is good in them, be it
gold or tincture, to the bottom of the glass." (Lexicon medico-chymicum, 1711,
p. 156.)

154

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

(point, monad, son, etc.). It is therefore a remarkable innovation
when the alchemists set out to manipulate an instrument that
would exert the same powers as the Echeneis, but on the
Echeneis itself. This reversal of direction is important for the
psychology of alchemy because it offers a parallel to the adept's
claim to be able to produce the filius macrocosmi, the equiva-
lent of Christ— Deo concedente— through his art. In this way the
artifex or his instrument comes to replace the Echeneis and
everything it stood for as the arcane substance. He has, so to
speak, inveigled the secret out of the fish and seeks to draw the
arcane substance to the surface in order to prepare from it the
filius philosophorum, the lapis.

240 The "magnet of the wise" which is to draw the wonder-work-
ing fish to the surface can, our text says, be taught. The content
of this secret teaching is the real arcanum of alchemy: the dis-
covery or production of the prima materia. The "doctrine" or
"theory" is personified— or rather, concretized— as "Mercurius
non vulgi," the philosophical mercury. This conception is as
ambiguous as the antique Hermes; sometimes Mercurius is a
substance like quicksilver, sometimes it is a philosophy. Dom
Pernety formulates it somewhat drastically: "[La matiere du
mercure philosophique] a une vertu aimantive qui attire des
rayons du Soleil et de la Lune le mercure des Sages." 3 Concern-
ing the prima materia the adepts talk a great deal but say very
little— so little that in most cases one can form no conception
of it whatever.4 This attitude is proof of serious intellectual dif-
ficulties—understandably so, because in the first place no such
material existed from which the lapis could be prepared, nor
did anyone ever succeed in making a lapis that would have come
up to expectations. Secondly, the names given to the prima
materia show that it was not a definite substance at all, but
rather an intuitive concept for an initial psychic situation, sym-
bolized by such terms as water of life, cloud, heaven, shadow,
sea, mother, moon, dragon, Venus, chaos, massa confusa, Micro-
cosmos, etc.

241 In the long lists of names one that frequently figures is "mag-
nesia," though this should certainly not be understood as the

3 Dictionnaire mytho-hermetique (1787), s.v. "Magn&s."

4 Cf . Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 425ft.

155

AION

magnesium oxide of the pharmacopoeia.5 Magnesia is rather the
"complete or conjoined mixture from which this moisture is
extracted,6 i.e., the root-matter of our stone." 7 The complicated
procedure for producing the magnesia is described in the
treatise "Aristoteles de perfecto Magisterio." 8 It is the whitened
arcane substance.9 Pandolfus says in the Turba: "I command
you to take the hidden and venerable secret thing, which is the
white magnesia." 10 In Khunrath, magnesia is synonymous with
4<chaos" and "Aes Hermetis." He calls it "A Catholic or Uni-
versal, that is, a Cosmic Ens or Entity, Three-in-One, naturally
compounded of Body, Spirit, and Soul, the one and only true
Subiectum Catholicon and true Universal Materia lapidis Phi-
losophorum." n The magnesia is feminine,12 just as the magnet
is masculine by nature.13 Hence it carries "in its belly the sal
Armoniacum et vegetabile,'J meaning the arcane substance of
the stone.14 Even in Greek alchemy magnesia or "magnes" de-
noted the hermaphroditic transformative substance.15 For the
alchemists, magnesia is associated with "magnes" (magnet) not
only phonetically, but also in meaning, as a recipe of Rosinus
shows: "Take therefore this animate stone, the stone which has
a soul in it, the mercurial,16 which is sensible and sensitive to the
presence and influence of the magnesia and the magnet, and

5 Berthelot says of the "Magn£sie": "Jusqu'au XVIIIe siecle, [le mot] n'a rien eu
de commun avec la magn^sie des chimistes d'aujourd'hui" (Alch. grecs, Introduc-
tion, p. 255). In Pliny and Dioscorides it meant the magnetic iron-stone.

6 Mylius, Phil, ref., p. 31.

7 The corpus Magnesiae is the "root of the closed house," the "belly" in which
Sol and Luna are united. ("Aurora consurgens," Part II, Art. aurif., I, p. 191.)

8 Theatr. chem., Ill, pp. 88f.

9 Mylius calls the tenth grade of the process "the exaltation, which is the in-
genious ennobling of our whitened magnesia" (p. 129). Hence the Rosarium
philosophorum {Art. aurif., II, p. 231) says: "The magnesia is the full moon."

10 Sermo XXI.

11 Von hylealischen Chaos, pp. 5L

12 "Magnesia— the Woman." Ruland, Lexicon, p. 216.

is But in the region of Alexandria and in the Troad there was said to be a
magnetic stone "of the feminine sex, and totally useless." (Ruland, p. 215.)

14 "Duodecim tractatus," Theatr. chem., IV, p. 499.

15 Berthelot, Intro., p. 255.

16 "Magnesia is further the mixed water congealed in air which offers resistance
to the fire, the earth of the stone, our mercury, mixture of the substances. The
whole therein is mercury." Ruland, p. 216.

156

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

[which is] the calaminary and the living Stone, yielding and
repelling by local motion." 17

242 This text shows clearly enough that the real alchemical pro-
cedure was not concerned at all with chemical processes, for if it
were, the substance to be transformed would not need to be
animate or endowed with sensitivity. But a psychic function was
absolutely necessary to it when, as in the case of the magnesia,
the adept was preoccupied with one of the innumerable expres-
sions used for the unconscious, that is, for the hidden part of
the psyche that had slipped into the unknown chemical com-
pound by projection, and that bedevilled and befooled him in
the guise of a hundred "arcane substances." Naturally only the
most stupid and unobservant of the alchemists were hood-
winked in this way, for there were plenty of hints in the classical
texts that could have put them on the right track. Unfortu-
nately, we today are not so far removed from the Middle Ages:
we still have to overcome considerable difficulties before we can
begin to understand the real purpose of alchemy.

243 The "lapis animalis" of Rosinus, then, is a live thing,
credited with the ability to feel or perceive the influence of the
magnesia and the magnet. But the magnet, too, is a live thing.
Thus, the jurisconsult and alchemist Chrysippus Fanianus, of
Basel, says: "But if Thales of Miletus chose to call that stone of
Hercules, the magnet, an animate thing, because we see it attract
and move iron, why shall we not likewise call salt, which in
wondrous wise penetrates, purges, contracts, expands, hinders,
and reduces, a living thing?" 18 Dorn writes: "The magnetic
stone teaches us, for in it the power of magnetizing and attract-
ing iron is not seen [with the eyes]; it is a spirit hidden within,
not perceptible to the sense." 19 The numinous effect which the

17 "Rosinus ad Sarratantam" (Art. aurif., I, p. 311): "Recipe ergo hunc lapiclem
animalem: id est aniraam in se habentem, scilicet Mercurialem sensibilem: id est,
sentientem praesentiam et influentiam magnesiae et magnetis et calaminarem [et
lapidem] per motum localem, prosequendo et fugando vegetabilem. . . ." Instead
of "et lapidem" the text of 1593 has "ac apicem," which does not make sense.
Rosinus is a corruption of Zosimos due to Arabic transcription.

18 De arte metallicae metamorphoseos ad Philoponum liber singularis (1576).
Reprinted in Theatr. chem., I (1602), p. 44.

19 "Philosophia chemica," Theatr. chem., I, p. 497. Here Dorn discusses his view
of the anima rerum: "The body ... of every thing is a prison, wherein the
powers of the soul of things are detained and held in fetters, so that their natural

157

AION

incomprehensible power of magnetism had upon our fore-
fathers is graphically described by St. Augustine: "We know
that the lodestone draws iron strangely; the which, when I saw
it for the first time, did send a cold shiver through me [vehe-
menter inhorrui]." 20 Even the humanist Andrea Alciati (d.
1550) exclaims: "Wherefore he who first perceives and beholds
the power of the magnet to attract iron cannot but be rapt in ad-
miration. . . . And it is not enough for some to obtrude upon
us that there is a certain secret power in these things, which is
generally known. For how will they define that hidden force,
of which they can tell us nothing but the name?" 21 The famous
anatomist and astrologer Gabriel Fallopius (1490-1563) is said
to have considered the magnet, together with quicksilver and
purgatives, to be inexplicable marvels, "whose effect is to be
wondered at with amazement," as Libavius relates in his "Ars
prolatoria." 22 These utterances bear witness to the naive reac-
tion of intelligent and thoughtful people who took what they
saw to be an inexplicable miracle. So it is quite understandable
if they felt that such an astonishing object was alive (like the
"la£>is animatus" "calx viva/' etc.). The magnet, too, had a
soul, like the mysterious stone that could feel. In the "Duodecim
tractatus" 23 the magnet appears as the symbol of the aqua roris
nostri (water of our dew), "whose mother is the midpoint of the
heavenly and earthly Sun and Moon." This water, the famed
aqua permanens, is apostrophized by the anonymous author as
follows: "O holy and wonderful nature, which permittest not
the sons of the doctrine to err, as thou showest in man's daily
life. Further in these . . . treatises I have put forward so many
natural reasons, that . . . the reader may understand all those

spirits are not able freely to impress their powers and activities upon them. The
spirit of such insensate things in relation to its subject is similar to and of the
same efficacy as undoubting faith is in man." The divine powers imprisoned in
bodies are nothing other than Dionysus dispersed in matter.

20 Cf. City of God, Healey trans., II, p. 322. Augustine finds quick-lime (calx
viva) equally wonderful: "Quam mirum est quod cum extinguitur, tunc accendi-
tur" (But the wonder is that when it is killed it is quickened).

21 Emblemata (1621), Embl. CLXXI, p. 715 a.

22 Commentariorum alchymiae (1606), Part II, p. 101.

23 Theatr. chem., IV, p. 499.

158

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

things which, by God's blessing, I have seen with my own
eyes."24

«44 The underlying thought here is the idea of the doctrine, the
"aqua doctrinae." As we have seen, the "magnet" or "heavenly
dew" can be taught. Like the water, it symbolizes the doctrine
itself. This is contrasted with the "animate stone" that "per-
ceives" the influence of the magnetic pair, magnes and magnesia.
The animate stone, like the magnet, is an arcane substance, and
only such substances can enter into a combination finally lead-
ing to the goal of the lapis philosophorum. Dorn says: "The
pagan Gentiles say that nature seeks after a nature like to itself,
and rejoices in its own nature; if it is joined to another, the work
of nature is destroyed." 25 This is an allusion to the axiom usu-
ally attributed to the alchemist Democritus: "Nature rejoices
in nature; nature subdues nature; nature rules over nature." 26

245 Just as magnes and magnesia form a pair, so the lapis anima-
tus sive vegetabilis21 is a Rebis or hermaphrodite that is born of
the royal marriage. We have, then, two contrasting pairs, form-
ing by mutual attraction a quaternio, the fourfold basis of
wholeness.28 As the symbolism shows, the pairs both signify the
same thing: a complexio oppositorum or uniting symbol.29 If
our texts do not represent them as the same thing and as coin-
ciding with the arcane substance, then there must be a reason
for this, though it cannot be ascertained from the symbols used
for the two substances to be combined. Sometimes the arcane

24 The extraordinary importance of the water in alchemy goes back, in my
view, to Gnostic sources: "And water is honoured, and they believe in it as if it
were a god, going almost so far as to allege that life arises therefrom" (Epipha-
nius, Panarium, LXIII, cap. I).

25 "Inquiunt enim, natura naturam sibi similem appetit, et congaudet suae
naturae; si alienae iungatur, destruitur opus naturae" ("Ars chemistica," Theatr.
chem., I, p. 252).

26 ArifioKpirov <pv<TLKa Kal fivcTTucd—Berthelot, Alch. grecs, II, i, 3. According to the
story of Democritus, this axiom was revealed to him by his deceased teacher.
Synesius, in the treatise addressed to Dioscorus, priest of Serapis (Berthelot, II,
iii), says that the teacher of Democritus was Ostanes, and that the axiom came
from him.

27 Vegetabilis in our texts means 'living' when applied to Mercurius, 'vivifying'
when applied to the Quinta Essentia.

28 Cf. "Psychology of the Transference," pars. 433ft., and "Phenomenology of the
Spirit in Fairytales," in Part I of vol. 9, pars. 429ft.

20 Psychological Types, ch. V, 3.

159

AION

substance is magnesia, sometimes the water, sometimes the mag-
net, sometimes the fish; and yet they all mean the prima materia
from which the miraculous birth ensues. The distinction that
the alchemists had in mind is made clear by a passage from a
seventeenth-century treatise written by John Collesson, prior
of the Benedictine Order: 30 "But as to that substance whereby
common gold and silver are naturally and Philosophically dis-
solved, let no man imagine that it is any other than the general
soul of the world, which by magnets and Philosophical means is
attracted and drawn down from the higher bodies, and especially
from the rays of the Sun and Moon. And hence it is clear that
they have no knowledge whatever of Mercurius or of the Philo-
sophical fluid who think to dissolve perfect metals by natural
and physical means." 31

246 Obviously a distinction must be made between two cate-
gories of symbols: first, those which refer to the extrapsychic
chemical substance or its metaphysical equivalent, e.g., serpens
mercurialis, spiritus, anima mundi, Veritas, sapientia, etc.; sec-
ond, those denoting the chemical preparations produced by the
adept, such as solvents (aqua, acetum, lac virginis) or their "phil-
osophical" equivalent, the theoria or scientia, which, when it is
"right," has miraculous effects on matter, as Dorn explains in his
philosophical treatises.32

247 These two categories continually overlap: sometimes the
arcane substance is apparently nothing but a chemical body,
sometimes an idea, which today we would call a psychic content.
Pernety describes this confusion very clearly in his explanation
of the magnet: "But it must not be supposed that this magnet is

30 "Idea perfecta philosophiae hermeticae," Theatr. chem. (1661), VI, p. 152. The
treatise was first published 1630. Of the author Collesson nothing appears to be
known.

31 "Quantum autem ad substantiam, qua naturaliter et Philosophice aurum et
argentum vulgare solvuntur, attinet, nemo sibi imaginari debet, ullam aliam,
quam animam mundi generalem, quae per magnetes et media Philosophica
trahitur et attrahitur de corporibus superioribus, maxime vero de radiis Solis
et Lunae. Unde liquet illos Mercurii seu menstrui Philosophici nullam habere
cognitionem, qui naturaliter et physice metalla perfecta dissolvere cogitant."

32 "There is a certain truth in natural things which is not seen with the outward
eye, but is perceived by the mind alone, and of this the Philosophers have had
experience, and have ascertained that its virtue is such that it performs miracles"
("Speculativa philosophia," Theatr. chem., I, p. 298).

160

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

the common magnet. They [the alchemists] have given it this
name only because of its natural sympathy with what they call
their steel [adamas]. This is the ore [prima materia] of their
gold, and the magnet is the ore of their steel. The centre of this
magnet contains a hidden salt, a menstruum for calcining the
philosophical gold. This prepared salt forms their Mercury, with
which they perform the magistery of the Sages in white and in
red. It becomes an ore of heavenly fire, which acts as a ferment
for their stone." 33 In his view, therefore, the secret of the mag-
net's effect lies in a salt prepared by the adept. Whenever an
alchemist speaks of "salt," he does not mean sodium chloride or
any other salt, or only in a very limited sense. He could not get
away from its symbolic significance, and therefore included the
sal sapientiae in the chemical substance. That is the salt hidden
in the magnet and prepared by the adept — on the one hand, a
product of his art; on the other, already present in nature. This
contradiction can be resolved very easily by taking it simply as
the projection of a psychic content.

A similar state of affairs can be found in Dorn's writings. In
his case it is not a question of the sal sapientiae but of the 'Veri-
tas," which for him is hidden in natural things and at the same
time is obviously a "moral" concept. This truth is the "medi-
cine, improving and transforming that which is no longer into
that which it was before its corruption, and that which is not
into that which it ought to be" 34 It is a "metaphysical sub-
stance," hidden not only in things, but in the human body: "In
the human body is concealed a certain metaphysical substance
known to very few, which needeth no medicament, being itself
an incorrupt medicament." 35 Therefore "it is the study of the
Chemists to liberate that unsensual truth from its fetters in
things of sense." 36 He that would acquire the chemical art must
study the "true Philosophy" and not the "Aristotelian," adds

33 Pernety, Dictionnaire mytho-hermetique, s.v. "Aimant."

34 ". . . medicina, corrigens et transmutans id, quod non est amplius, in id quod
fuit ante corruptionem, ac in melius, et id, quod non est, in id quod esse debet"
(P- 267).

35 "In corpore humano latet quaedam substantia methaphysica, paucissimis nota,
quae nullo . . . indiget medicamento, sed ipsa medicamentum est incorruptum"
(p. 265).

36 ".. . . Chemistarum studiura, in sensualibus insensualem illam veritatem a suis
compedibus liberare" (p. 271).

l6l

AION

Dorn, because the true doctrine, in Collesson's words, is the
magnet whereby the "centre of truth" is liberated from bodies
and whereby the bodies are transformed. "The Philosophers,
through a kind of divine inspiration, knew that this virtue and
heavenly vigour can be freed from its fetters; not by its contrary
. . . but by its like. Since therefore some such a thing is found,
whether within man or outside him, which is conformable to
this substance, the wise concluded that like things are to be forti-
fied by like, by peace rather than by war." 37

249 Thus the doctrine, which may be consciously acquired
"through a kind of divine inspiration," is at the same time the
instrument whereby the object of the doctrine or theory can be
freed from its imprisonment in the body, because the symbol for
the doctrine— the "magnet"— is at the same time the mysterious
"truth" of which the doctrine speaks. The doctrine enters the
consciousness of the adept as a gift of the Holy Ghost. It is a
thesaurus of knowledge about the secret of the art, of the treas-
ure hidden in the prima materia, which was thought to be out-
side man. The treasure of the doctrine and the precious secret
concealed in the darkness of matter are one and the same thing.
For us this is not a discovery, as we have known for some time
that such secrets owe their existence to unconscious projections.
Dorn was the first thinker to recognize with the utmost clarity
the extraordinary dilemma of alchemy: the arcane substance is
one and the same, whether it is found within man or outside
him. The "alchymical" procedure takes place within and with-
out. He who does not understand how to free the "truth" in
his own soul from its fetters will never make a success of the
physical opus, and he who knows how to make the stone can only
do so on the basis of right doctrine, through which he himself
is transformed, or which he creates through his own transforma-
tion.

250 Helped by these reflections, Dorn comes to realize the funda-
mental importance of self-knowledge: "See, therefore, that thou

37 "Philosophi divino quodam afflatu cognoverunt hanc virtutem caelestemque
vigorem a suis compedibus liberari posse: non contrario . . . sed suo simili. Cum
igitur tale quid, sive in homine sive extra ipsum inveniatur, quod huic est con-
forme substantiae, concluserunt sapientes similia similibus esse corroboranda,
pace potius quam bello." (P. 265.)

l62

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

goest forth such as thou desirest the work to be which thou
seekest."38 In other words, the expectations you put into the
work must be applied to your own ego. The production of the
arcane substance, the "generatio Mercurii," is possible only for
one who has full knowledge of the doctrine; but "we cannot be
resolved of any doubt except by experiment, and there is no
better way to make it than on ourselves." 39 The doctrine formu-
lates our inner experience or is substantially dependent upon
it: "Let him know that man's greatest treasure is to be found
within man, and not outside him. From him it goes forth in-
wardly . . . whereby that is outwardly brought to pass which
he sees with his own eyes. Therefore unless his mind be blinded,
he will see, that is, understand, who and of what sort he is in-
wardly, and by the light of nature he will know himself through
outward things." 40 The secret is first and foremost in man; it is
his true self*1 which he does not know but learns to know by
experience of outward things. Therefore Dorn exhorts the al-
chemist: "Learn from within thyself to know all that is in heaven
and on earth, that thou mayest be wise in all things. Knowest
thou not that heaven and the elements were formerly one, and
were separated by a divine act of creation from one another, that
they might bring forth thee and all things?" 42

Since knowledge of the world dwells in his own bosom, the
adept should draw such knowledge out of his knowledge of him-
self, for the self he must seek to know is a part of that nature
which was bodied forth by God's original oneness with the
world. It is manifestly not a knowledge of the nature of the ego,

38 "Fac igitur ut talis evadas, quale tuum esse vis quod quaesieris opus" (p. 277).
39 ". . . non possumus de quovis dubio certiores fieri, quam experiendo, nee
melius quam in nobis ipsis" ("Philosophia meditativa," Theatr. chem., I, p. 467).

40 "Cognoscat hominis in homine thesaurum existere maximum, et non extra
ipsum. Ab ipso procedit interius . . . per quod operatur extrinsecus id, quod
oculariter videt. Ergo nisi mente caecus fuerit, videbit (id est) intelliget, quis et
qualis sit intrinsecus, luceque naturae seipsum cognoscet per exteriora." ("Specu-
lativae philosophiae," p. 307.)

41 The alchemist and mystic John Pordage (1607-81) called the inner "eternal"
man an "extract and summary concept of the Macrocosm" (Sophia, 1699, p. 34).

42 "Disce ex te ipso, quicquid est et in caelo et in terra, cognoscere, ut sapiens fias
in omnibus. Ignoras caelum et elementa prius unum fuisse, divino quoque ab
invicem artificio separata, ut et te et omnia generare possent?" ("Speculativae
philosophiae," p. 276.)

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though this is far more convenient and is fondly confused with
self-knowledge. For this reason anyone who seriously tries to
know himself as an object is accused of selfishness and eccen-
tricity. But such knowledge has nothing to do with the ego's
subjective knowledge of itself. That is a dog chasing its own tail.
The other, on the contrary, is a difficult and morally exacting
study of which so-called psychology knows nothing and the edu-
cated public very little. The alchemist, however, had at the very
least an indirect inkling of it: he knew definitely that as part
of the whole he had an image of the whole in himself, the
"firmament" or "Olympus," as Paracelsus calls it.43 This interior
microcosm was the unwitting object of alchemical research. To-
day we would call it the collective unconscious, and we would
describe it as "objective" because it is identical in all individuals
and is therefore one. Out of this universal One there is produced
in every individual a subjective consciousness, i.e., the ego. This
is, roughly, how we today would understand Dorn's "formerly
one" and "separated by a divine act of creation."
252 This objective knowledge of the self is what the author
means when he says: "No one can know himself unless he knows
what, and not ivho, he is, on what he depends, or whose he is
[or: to whom or what he belongs] and for what end he was
made." 44 The distinction between "quis" and "quid" is crucial:
whereas "quis" has an unmistakably personal aspect and refers
to the ego, "quid" is neuter, predicating nothing except an
object which is not endowed even with personality. Not the
subjective ego-consciousness of the psyche is meant, but the
psyche itself as the unknown, unprejudiced object that still has
to be investigated. The difference between knowledge of the ego
and knowledge of the self could hardly be formulated more
trenchantly than in this distinction between "quis" and "quid."

43 An idea that reached its full development 200 years later in Leibniz' mon-
adology, and then fell into complete oblivion for another 200 years owing to the
rise of the scientific trinity— space, time, causality. Herbert Silberer, who was also
interested in alchemy, says: "I would almost prefer to surrender entirely to pic-
ture-language, and to call the deepest subconsciousness our internal heaven of
fixed stars." (Der Zufall und die Koboldstreiche des Unbewussten, p. 66.) Further
material in "On the Nature of the Psyche," pars. 38gff.

44 "Nemo vero potest cognoscere se, nisi sciat quid, et non quis ipse sit, a quo
dependeat, vel cuius sit . . . et in quern finem factus sit" (p. 272).

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THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

An alchemist of the sixteenth century has here put his finger on
something that certain psychologists (or those of them who allow
themselves an opinion in psychological matters) still stumble
over today. "What" refers to the neutral self, the objective fact
of totality, since the ego is on the one hand causally "dependent
on" or "belongs to" it, and on the other hand is directed towards
it as to a goal. This recalls the impressive opening sentence of
Ignatius Loyola's "Foundation": "Man was created to praise, do
reverence to, and serve God our Lord, and thereby to save his
soul."45

253 Man knows only a small part of his psyche, just as he has only
a very limited knowledge of the physiology of his body. The
causal factors determining his psychic existence reside largely in
unconscious processes outside consciousness, and in the same
way there are final factors at work in him which likewise orig-
inate in the unconscious. Freud's psychology gives elementary
proof of the causal factors, Adler's of the final ones. Causes and
ends thus transcend consciousness to a degree that ought not to
be underestimated, and this implies that their nature and action
are unalterable and irreversible so long as they have not become
objects of consciousness. They can only be corrected through
conscious insight and moral determination, which is why self-
knowledge, being so necessary, is feared so much. Accordingly,
if we divest the opening sentence of the "Foundation" of its
theological terminology, it would run as follows: "Man's con-
sciousness was created to the end that it may (1) recognize
(laudet) its descent from a higher unity (Deum); (2) pay due and
careful regard to this source (reverentiam exhibeat); (3) execute
its commands intelligently and responsibly (serviat); and (4)
thereby afford the psyche as a whole the optimum degree of life
and development (salvet animam suam)."

254 This paraphrase not only sounds rationalistic but is meant
to be so, for despite every effort the modern mind no longer
understands our two-thousand-year-old theological language un-
less it "accords with reason." As a result, the danger that lack
of understanding will be replaced by lip-service, affectation,

45 Exercitia spiritualia, "Principio y Fundamento": "Homo creatus est (ad hunc
finem), ut laudet Deum Dominum nostrum, ei reverentiam exhibeat, eique
serviat, et per haec salvet animam suam." See trans, by Rickaby, p. 18.

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AION

and forced belief or else by resignation and indifference has
long since come to pass.

255 The final factors at work in us are nothing other than those
talents which "a certain nobleman" entrusted to his "servants,"
that they might trade with them (Luke 19 : i2ff.). It does not
require much imagination to see what this involvement in the
ways of the world means in the moral sense. Only an infantile
person can pretend that evil is not at work everywhere, and the
more unconscious he is, the more the devil drives him. It is just
because of this inner connection with the black side of things
that it is so incredibly easy for the mass man to commit the most
appalling crimes without thinking. Only ruthless self-knowledge
on the widest scale, which sees good and evil in correct perspec-
tive and can weigh up the motives of human action, offers some
guarantee that the end-result will not turn out too badly.

256 We find the crucial importance of self-knowledge for the
alchemical process of transformation expressed most clearly in
Dorn, who lived in the second half of the sixteenth century. The
idea itself is much older and goes back to Morienus Romanus
(7th-8th cent.), in the saying which he wrote on the rim of the
Hermetic vessel: "All those who have all things with them have
no need of outside aid." 46 He is not referring to the possession
of all the necessary chemical substances; it is far more a moral
matter, as the text makes clear.47 God, says Morienus, made the
World out of four unequal elements and set man as the "greater
ornament" between them: "This thing is extracted from thee,
for thou art its ore; in thee they find it, and, to speak more
plainly, from thee they take it; and when thou hast experienced
this, the love and desire for it will be increased in thee." 4S This
"thing" is the lapis, and Morienus says that it contains the four
elements and is likened to the cosmos and its structure. The
procedure for making the stone "cannot be performed with
hands," 49 for it is a "human attitude" (dispositio hominum).
This alone accomplishes the "changing of the natures." The

46 "De transmutatione metallica," Art. aurif., II, p. 11.

47 "Not, that is, that I should require of them riches or gifts, but that I should
diligently furnish them with spiritual gifts" (p. 10).

48 "Haec enim res a te extrahitur: cuius etiam minera tu existis, apud te namque
illam inveniunt, et ut verius confitear, a te accipiunt; quod quum probaveris,
amor eius (rei) et dilectio in te augebitur" (p. 37). 49 Pp. 4of.

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THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

transformation is brought about by the coniunctio, which forms
the essence of the work.50
257 The "Rosinus ad Sarratantam Episcopum"— which, if not
altogether Arabic in origin, is one of the oldest texts in Arabic
style— cites Magus Philosophus: 51 "This stone is below thee, as
to obedience; above thee, as to dominion; therefore from thee,
as to knowledge; about thee, as to equals." 52 The passage is
somewhat obscure. Nevertheless, it can be elicited that the stone
stands in an undoubted psychic relationship to man: the adept
can expect obedience from it, but on the other hand the stone
exercises dominion over him. Since the stone is a matter of
"knowledge" or science, it springs from man. But it is outside
him, in his surroundings, among his "equals," i.e., those of like
mind. This description fits the paradoxical situation of the self,
as its symbolism shows. It is the smallest of the small, easily over-
looked and pushed aside. Indeed, it is in need of help and must
be perceived, protected, and as it were built up by the conscious
mind, just as if it did not exist at all and were called into being
only through man's care and devotion. As against this, we know
from experience that it had long been there and is older than
the ego, and that it is actually the secret spiritus rector of our
fate. The self does not become conscious by itself, but has always
been taught, if at all, through a tradition of knowing (the
purusha I atman teaching, for instance). Since it stands for the
essence of individuation, and individuation is impossible with-
out a relationship to one's environment, it is found among those
of like mind with whom individual relations can be established.
The self, moreover, is an archetype that invariably expresses a
situation within which the ego is contained. Therefore, like
every archetype, the self cannot be localized in an individual

50 "The whole perfection of the magistery consists in the taking of conjoined
and concordant bodies" (p. 43). The "Interpretatio cuiusdam epistolae Alexandri
Macedonum regis" (Art. aurif., I, p. 384) says: "And know that nothing is born
without male and female." And in the "Tractatulus Avicennae" it is said: "Mar-
riage is the mingling of the subtle with the dense." Cf. "Psychology of the Trans-
ference," index, s.v. "coniunctio."

51 The text has "Malus" (Art. aurif., I, p. 310), probably a miswriting of Magus,
who is a known author.

52 "Hie lapis est subtus te, quantum ad obedientiam; supra te, quoad dominium;
ergo a te, quantum ad scientiam; circa te, quantum ad aequales" (Art. aurif., I,
p. 310).

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AION

ego-consciousness, but acts like a circumambient atmosphere to
which no definite limits can be set, either in space or in time.
(Hence the synchronistic phenomena so often associated with
activated archetypes.)

258 The treatise of Rosinus contains a parallel to Morienus: 5S
"This stone is something which is fixed more in thee [than else-
where], created of God, and thou art its ore, and it is extracted
from thee, and wheresoever thou art it remains inseparably with
thee. . . . And as man is made up of four elements, so also is
the stone, and so it is [dug] out of man, and thou art its ore,
namely by working; and from thee it is extracted, that is by divi-
sion; and in thee it remains inseparably, namely by knowledge.
[To express it] otherwise, fixed in thee: namely in the Mercurius
of the wise; thou art its ore: that is, it is enclosed in thee and
thou holdest it 54 secretly; and from thee it is extracted when it
is reduced [to its essence] by thee and dissolved; for without thee
it cannot be fulfilled, and without it canst thou not live, and so
the end looks to the beginning, and contrariwise/' 55

259 This looks like a commentary on Morienus. We learn from
it that the stone is implanted in man by God, that the laborant
is its prima materia, that the extraction corresponds to the so-
called divisio or separatio of the alchemical procedure, and that
through his knowledge of the stone man remains inseparably
bound to the self. The procedure here described could easily be
understood as the realization of an unconscious content. Fixa-
tion in the Mercurius of the wise would then correspond to the
traditional Hermetic knowledge, since Mercurius symbolizes
the Nous; 56 through this knowledge the self, as a content of the

53 The dating of these texts is very uncertain. Allowing for error, it seems to me
that Morienus is the older.

54 The text has "ipsum." But the object here is "res."

55 "Hie lapis talis est res, quae in te magis fixa est, a Deo creata, et tu eius
minera es ac a te extrahitur et ubicunque fueris, tecum inseparabiliter manet.
. . . Et ut homo ex 4 elementis est compositus, ita et lapis, et ita est ex homine,
et tu es eius minera, scil. per operationem; et de te extrahitur, scil. per divi-
sionem; et in te inseparabiliter manet, scil. per scientiam. Aliter in te fixa, scil.
in Mercurio sapientum; tu eius minera es; id est, in te est conclusa et ips[a]m
occulte tenes, et ex te extrahitur, cum a te reducitur et solvitur; quia sine te
compleri non potest, et tu sine ips[a] vivere non potes et sic finis respicit prin-
cipium et contra." (Art. aurif., I, pp. 31 if.)

56 "The Spirit Mercurius," pars. 264ft

168

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

unconscious, is made conscious and "fixed" in the mind. For
without the existence of conscious concepts apperception is, as
wc know, impossible. This explains numerous neurotic dis-
turbances which arise from the fact that certain contents are
constellated in the unconscious but cannot be assimilated owing
to the lack of apperceptive concepts that would "grasp" them.
That is why it is so extremely important to tell children fairy-
tales and legends, and to inculcate religious ideas (dogmas) into
grown-ups, because these things are instrumental symbols with
whose help unconscious contents can be canalized into con-
sciousness, interpreted, and integrated. Failing this, their energy
flows off into conscious contents which, normally, are not much
emphasized, and intensifies them to pathological proportions.
We then get apparently groundless phobias and obsessions-
crazes, idiosyncrasies, hypochondriac ideas, and intellectual per-
versions suitably camouflaged in social, religious, or political
garb.

260 The old master saw the alchemical opus as a kind of apoca-
tastasis, the restoring of an initial state in an "eschatological"
one ("the end looks to the beginning, and contrariwise"). This
is exactly what happens in the individuation process, whether it
take the form of a Christian transformation ("Except ye become
as little children"), or a satori experience in Zen ("show me
your original face"), or a psychological process of development
in which the original propensity to wholeness becomes a con-
scious happening.

261 For the alchemist it was clear that the "centre," or what we
would call the self, does not lie in the ego but is outside it, "in
us" yet not "in our mind," being located rather in that which we
unconsciously are, the "quid" which we still have to recognize.
Today we would call it the unconscious, and we distinguish be-
tween a personal unconscious which enables us to recognize the
shadow and an impersonal unconscious which enables us to
recognize the archetypal symbol of the self. Such a point of view
was inaccessible to the alchemist, and having no idea of the
theory of knowledge, he had to exteriorize his archetype in the
traditional way and lodge it in matter, even though he felt, as
Dorn and others undoubtedly did, that the centre was para-
doxically in man and yet at the same time outside him.

109

AION

262 The "incorrupt medicament," the lapis, says Dorn, can be
found nowhere save in heaven, for heaven "pervades all the ele-
ments with invisible rays meeting together from all parts at the
centre of the earth, and generates and hatches forth all crea-
tures." "No man can generate in himself, but [only] in that
which is like him, which is from the same [heaven]."57

263 We see here how Dorn gets round his paradox: no one can
produce anything without an object that is like him. But it is
like him because it comes from the same source. If he wants to
produce the incorrupt medicament, he can only do so in some-
thing that is akin to his own centre, and this is the centre in the
earth and in all creatures. It comes, like his own, from the same
fountainhead, which is God. Separation into apparently dis-
similar things, such as heaven, the elements, man, etc., was neces-
sary only for the work of generation. Everything separated must
be united again in the production of the stone, so that the orig-
inal state of unity shall be restored. But, says Dorn, "thou wilt
never make from others the One which thou seekest, except first
there be made one thing of thyself. . . . For so is the will of
God, that the pious shall pursue the pious work which they seek,
and the perfect shall perfect the other on which they were in-
tent. . . . See therefore that thou goest forth such as thou de-
sirest the work to be which thou seekest." 58

264 The union of opposites in the stone is possible only when the
adept has become One himself. The unity of the stone is the
equivalent of individuation, by which man is made one; we
would say that the stone is a projection of the unified self. This
formulation is psychologically correct. It does not, however,
take sufficient account of the fact that the stone is a transcendent
unity. We must therefore emphasize that though the self can
become a symbolic content of consciousness, it is, as a supra-
ordinate totality, necessarily transcendental as well. Dorn rec-
ognized the identity of the stone with the transformed man when
he exclaimed: "Transmute yourselves from dead stones into

57 "Nemo in se ipso, sed in sui simili, quod etiam ex ipso sit, generare potest"
("Speculativae philosophiae," p. 276).

58 ". . . ex aliis numquam unum fades quod quaeris, nisi prius ex te ipso fiat
unum. . . . Nam talis est voluntas Dei, ut pii pium consequantur opus quod
quaerunt, et perfecti perficiant aliud cui fuerint intend. . . . Fac igitur ut talis
evadas, quale tuum esse vis quod quaesieris opus" (p. 276f.).

170

THE ALCHEMICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE FISH

living philosophical stones!"59 But he lacked the concept of an
unconscious existence which would have enabled him to express
the identity of the subjective psychic centre and the objective
alchemical centre in a satisfactory formula. Nevertheless, he
succeeded in explaining the magnetic attraction between the
imagined symbol— the "theoria"— and the "centre" hidden in
matter, or in the interior of the earth or in the North Pole, as
the identity of two extremes. That is why the theoria and the
arcanum in matter are both called Veritas. This truth "shines"
in us, but it is not of us: it "is to be sought not in us, but in the
image of God which is in us." 60

265 Dorn thus equates the transcendent centre in man with the
God-image. This identification makes it clear why the alchemical
symbols for wholeness apply as much to the arcanum in man as
to the Deity, and why substances like mercury and sulphur, or
the elements fire and water, could refer to God, Christ, and the
Holy Ghost. Indeed, Dorn goes even further and allows the
predicate of being to this truth, and to this truth alone: "Fur-
ther, that we may give a satisfactory definition of the truth, we
say it is, but nothing can be added to it; for what, pray, can be
added to the One, what is lacking to it, or on what can it be sup-
ported? For in truth nothing exists beside that One."61 The
only thing that truly exists for him is the transcendental self,
which is identical with God.

266 Dorn was probably the first alchemist to sum up the results
of all the symbolical terms and to state clearly what had been
the impelling motive of alchemy from the very beginning. It is
remarkable that this thinker, who is far more lucid in his formu-
lations than his successor Jakob Bohme, has remained com-
pletely unknown to historians of philosophy until today. He
thus shares the fate of Hermetic philosophy in general, which,
for those unacquainted with modern psychology, remains a

69 "Transmutemini de lapidibus mortuis in vivos lapides philosophicos!" (p. 267).
This is an allusion to I Peter 2 : 4f: "Come to him, to that living stone, rejected
by men but in God's sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be your-
selves built [up] . . .*' (RSV).

60 "Non in nobis quaerenda [Veritas], sed in imagine Dei, quae in nobis est"
(p. 268).

61 "Ulterius, ut definitioni veri faciamus satis, dicimus esse, vero nihil adesse, nam
uni quid adest, quaeso, quid etiam deest, aut quid contra niti potest? cum nihil
vere praeter illud unum existit" (p. 268).

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AION

closed book sealed with seven seals. But this book has to be
opened sometime if we wish to understand the mentality of the
present day; for alchemy is the mother of the essential substance
as well as the concreteness of modern scientific thinking, and not
scholasticism, which was responsible in the main only for the
discipline and training o£ the intellect.

172

XII

BACKGROUND TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
CHRISTIAN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

267 "Mater Alchimia" could serve as the name of a whole epoch.
Beginning, roughly, with Christianity, it gave birth in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries to the age of science, only to
perish, unrecognized and misunderstood, and sink from sight in
the stream of the centuries as an age that had been outlived. But,
just as every mother was once a daughter, so too was alchemy.
It owes its real beginnings to the Gnostic systems, which Hip-
polytus rightly regarded as philosophic, and which, with the
help of Greek philosophy and the mythologies of the Near and
Middle East, together with Christian dogmatics and Jewish
cabalism, made extremely interesting attempts, from the mod-
ern point of view, to synthetize a unitary vision of the world in
which the physical and the mystical aspects played equal parts.
Had this attempt succeeded, we would not be witnessing today
the curious spectacle of two parallel world-views neither of
which knows, or wishes to know, anything about the other.
Hippolytus was in the enviable position of being able to see
Christian doctrine side by side with its pagan sisters, and similar
comparisons had also been attempted by Justin Martyr. To the
honour of Christian thinking it must be said that up till the
time of Kepler there was no lack of praiseworthy attempts to
interpret and understand Nature, in the broadest sense, on the
basis of Christian dogma.

268 These attempts, however, inevitably came to grief for lack
of any adequate knowledge of natural processes. Thus, in the
course of the eighteenth century, there arose that notorious rift
between faith and knowledge. Faith lacked experience and sci-
ence missed out the soul. Instead, science believed fervently in
absolute objectivity and assiduously overlooked the fundamental
difficulty that the real vehicle and begetter of all knowledge is
the psyche, the very thing that scientists knew the least about

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AION

for the longest time. It was regarded as a symptom of chemical
reactions, an epiphenomenon of biological processes in the
brain-cells— indeed, for some time it did not exist at all. Yet all
the while scientists remained totally unaware of the fact that
they were using for their observations a photographic apparatus
of whose nature and structure they knew practically nothing,
and whose very existence many of them were unwilling to admit.
It is only quite recently that they have been obliged to take into
their calculations the objective reality of this psychic factor. Sig-
nificantly enough, it is microphysics that has come up against
the psyche in the most tangible and unexpected way. Obviously,
we must disregard the psychology of the unconscious in this con-
nection, since its working hypothesis consists precisely in the
reality of the psyche. What is significant here is the exact oppo-
site, namely the psyche's collision with physics.1

269 Now for the Gnostics— and this is their real secret— the
psyche existed as a source of knowledge just as much as it did for
the alchemists. Aside from the psychology of the unconscious,
contemporary science and philosophy know only of what is out-
side, while faith knows only of the inside, and then only in the
Christian form imparted to it by the passage of the centuries,
beginning with St. Paul and the gospel of St. John. Faith, quite
as much as science with its traditional objectivity, is absolute,
which is why faith and knowledge can no more agree than
Christians can with one another.

27° Our Christian doctrine is a highly differentiated symbol that
expresses the transcendent psychic— the God-image and its prop-
erties, to speak with Dorn. The Creed is a "symbolum." This
comprises practically everything of importance that can be ascer-
tained about the manifestations of the psyche in the field of
inner experience, but it does not include Nature, at least not in
any recognizable form. Consequently, at every period of Chris-
tianity there have been subsidiary currents or undercurrents
that have sought to investigate the empirical aspect of Nature
not only from the outside but also from the inside.

271 Although dogma, like mythology in general, expresses the
quintessence of inner experience and thus formulates the opera-
tive principles of the objective psyche, i.e., the collective uncon-

1 Cf. "On the Nature of the Psyche," pars. 417ft., 438s.

174

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

scious, it does so by making use of a language and outlook that
have become alien to our present way of thinking. The word
"dogma" has even acquired a somewhat unpleasant sound and
frequently serves merely to emphasize the rigidity of a prejudice.
For most people living in the West, it has lost its meaning as a
symbol for a virtually unknowable and yet "actual"— i.e., opera-
tive—fact. Even in theological circles any real discussion of
dogma had as good as ceased until the recent papal declarations,
a sign that the symbol has begun to fade, if it is not already
withered. This is a dangerous development for our psychic
health, as we know of no other symbol that better expresses the
world of the unconscious. More and more people then begin
looking round for exotic ideas in the hope of finding a substi-
tute, for example in India. This hope is delusory, for though
the Indian symbols formulate the unconscious just as well as
the Christian ones do, they each exemplify their own spiritual
past. The Indian teachings constitute the essence of several
thousand years of experience of Indian life. Though we can
learn a lot from Indian thought, it can never express the past
that is stored up within us. The premise we start from is and
remains Christianity, which covers anything from eleven to nine-
teen centuries of Western life. Before that, there was for most
Western peoples a considerably longer period of polytheism and
polydemonism. In certain parts of Europe Christianity goes back
not much more than five hundred years— a mere sixteen genera-
tions. The last witch was burnt in Europe the year my grand-
father was born, and barbarism with its degradation of human
nature has broken out again in the twentieth century.

I mention these facts in order to illustrate how thin is the
wall that separates us from pagan times. Besides that, the Ger-
manic peoples never developed organically out of primitive
polydemonism to polytheism and its philosophical subtleties,
but in many places accepted Christian monotheism and its doc-
trine of redemption only at the sword's point of the Roman le-
gions, as in Africa the machine-gun is the latent argument behind
the Christian invasion.2 Doubtless the spread of Christianity
among barbarian peoples not only favoured, but actually neces-
sitated, a certain inflexibility of dogma. Much the same thing

2 I was able to convince myself on the spot of the existence of this fear.

175

AION

can be observed in the spread of Islam, which was likewise
obliged to resort to fanaticism and rigidity. In India the symbol
developed far more organically and pursued a less disturbed
course. Even the great Hindu Reformation, Buddhism, is
grounded, in true Indian fashion, on yoga, and, in India at least,
it was almost completely reassimilated by Hinduism in less than
a millennium, so that today the Buddha himself is enthroned
in the Hindu pantheon as the avatar of Vishnu, along with
Christ, Matsya (the fish), Kurma (the tortoise), Vamana (the
dwarf), and a host of others.

273 The historical development of our Western mentality cannot
be compared in any way with the Indian. Anyone who believes
that he can simply take over Eastern forms of thought is uproot-
ing himself, for they do not express our Western past, but re-
main bloodless intellectual concepts that strike no chord in our
inmost being. We are rooted in Christian soil. This foundation
does not go very deep, certainly, and, as we have seen, it has
proved alarmingly thin in places, so that the original paganism,
in altered guise, was able to regain possession of a large part of
Europe and impose on it its characteristic economic pattern of
slavery.

274 This modern development is in line with the pagan currents
that were clearly present in alchemy and had remained alive
beneath the Christian surface ever since the days of antiquity.
Alchemy reached its greatest efflorescence in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, then to all appearances it began to die
out. In reality it found its continuation in natural science, which
led in the nineteenth century to materialism and in the twen-
tieth century to so-called "realism," whose end is not yet in sight.
Despite well-meaning assurances to the contrary, Christianity is
a helpless bystander. The Church still has a little power left,
but she pastures her sheep on the ruins of Europe. Her message
works, if one knows how to combine her language, ideas, and
customs with an understanding of the present. But for many she
no longer speaks, as Paul did in the market-place of Athens, the
language of the present, but wraps her message in sacrosanct
words hallowed by age. What success would Paul have had with
his preaching if he had had to use the language and myths of the
Minoan age in order to announce the gospel to the Athenians?
We overlook the unfortunate fact that far greater demands are

176

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

made on present-day man than were ever made on people living
in the apostolic era: for them there was no difficulty at all in
believing in the virgin birth of the hero and demigod, and
Justin Martyr was still able to use this argument in his apology.
Nor was the idea of a redeeming God-man anything unheard of,
since practically all Asiatic potentates together with the Roman
Emperor were of divine nature. But we have no further use
even for the divine right of kings! The miraculous tales in the
gospels, which easily convinced people in those days, would be
a petra scandali in any modern biography and would evoke the
very reverse of belief. The weird and wonderful nature of the
gods was a self-evident fact in a hundred living myths and as-
sumed a special significance in the no less credible philosophic
refinements of those myths. ''Hermes ter unus" (Hermes-Thrice-
One) was not an intellectual absurdity but a philosophical
truth. On these foundations the dogma of the Trinity could be
built up convincingly. For modern man this dogma is either an
impenetrable mystery or an historical curiosity, preferably the
latter. For the man of antiquity the virtue of the consecrated
water or the transmutation of substances was in no sense an
enormity, because there were dozens of sacred springs whose
workings were incomprehensible, and any amount of chemical
changes whose nature appeared miraculous. Nowadays every
schoolboy knows more, in principle, about the ways of Nature
than all the volumes of Pliny's Natural History put together.
If Paul were alive today, and should undertake to reach the
ear of intelligent Londoners in Hyde Park, he could no longer
content himself with quotations from Greek literature and a
smattering of Jewish history, but would have to accommodate
his language to the intellectual faculties of the modern English
public. If he failed to do this, he would have announced his
message badly, for no one, except perhaps a classical philologist,
would understand half of what he was saying. That, however, is
the situation in which Christian kerygmatics 3 finds itself today.
Not that it uses a dead foreign language in the literal sense, but
it speaks in images that on the one hand are hoary with age and
look deceptively familiar, while on the other hand they are
miles away from a modern man's conscious understanding,

3 Kerygmatics = preaching, declaration of religious truth.

177

AION

addressing themselves, at most, to his unconscious, and then only
if the speaker's whole soul is in his work. The best that can
happen, therefore, is that the effect remains stuck in the sphere
of feeling, though in most cases it does not get even that far.

276 The bridge from dogma to the inner experience of the indi-
vidual has broken down. Instead, dogma is "believed";4 it is
hypostatized, as the Protestants hypostatize the Bible, illegiti-
mately making it the supreme authority, regardless of its con-
tradictions and controversial interpretations. (As we know, any-
thing can be authorized out of the Bible.) Dogma no longer
formulates anything, no longer expresses anything; it has be-
come a tenet to be accepted in and for itself, with no basis in any
experience that would demonstrate its truth.5 Indeed, faith has
itself become that experience. The faith of a man like Paul, who
had never seen our Lord in the flesh, could still appeal to the
overwhelming apparition on the road to Damascus and to the
revelation of the gospel in a kind of ecstasy. Similarly, the faith
of the man of antiquity and of the medieval Christian never ran
counter to the consensus omnium but was on the contrary sup-
ported by it. All this has completely changed in the last three
hundred years. But what comparable change has kept pace with
this in theological circles?

«77 The danger exists— and of this there can be no doubt— that
the new wine will burst the old bottles, and that what we no
longer understand will be thrown into the lumber-room, as
happened once before at the time of the Reformation. Prot-
estantism then discarded (except for a few pallid remnants) the
ritual that every religion needs, and now relies solely on the
sola fides standpoint. The content of faith, of the symbolum, is
continually crumbling away. What is still left of it? The person
of Jesus Christ? Even the most benighted layman knows that the

* Father Victor White, O.P., has kindly drawn my attention to the concept of the
Veritas prima in St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa theol., II, II, i, 1 and 2): This "first
truth" is invisible and unknown. It is this, and not the dogma, that underlies
belief.

5 This is not to contest the legitimacy and importance of dogma. The Church
is not concerned only with people who have a religious life of their own, but
also with those from whom no more can be expected than that they should hold
a tenet to be true and confess themselves satisfied with this formula. Probably the
great majority of "believers" do not get beyond this level. For them dogma retains
its role as a magnet and can therefore claim to be the "final" truth.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

personality of Jesus is, for the biographer, the obscurest item
of all in the reports of the New Testament, and that, from a
human and psychological point of view, his personality must
remain an unfathomable enigma. As a Catholic writer pithily
remarked, the gospels record the history of a man and a god at
the same time. Or is only God left? In that case, what about the
Incarnation, the most vital part of the symbolum? In my view
one would be well advised to apply the papal dictum: "Let it be
as it is, or not be at all," 6 to the Creed and leave it at that, be-
cause nobody really understands what it is all about. How else
can one explain the notorious drift away from dogma?

It may strike my reader as strange that a physician and psy-
chologist should be so insistent about dogma. But I must
emphasize it, and for the same reasons that once moved the al-
chemist to attach special importance to his "theoria." His doc-
trine was the quintessence of the symbolism of unconscious
processes, just as the dogmas are a condensation or distillation
of "sacred history," of the myth of the divine being and his
deeds. If we wish to understand what alchemical doctrine means,
we must go back to the historical as well as the individual
phenomenology of the symbols, and if we wish to gain a closer
understanding of dogma, we must perforce consider first the
myths of the Near and Middle East that underlie Christianity,
and then the whole of mythology as the expression of a universal
disposition in man. This disposition I have called the collective
unconscious, the existence of which can be inferred only from
individual phenomenology. In both cases the investigator comes
back to the individual, for what he is all the time concerned
with are certain complex thought-forms, the archetypes, which
must be conjectured as the unconscious organizers of our ideas.
The motive force that produces these configurations cannot be
distinguished from the transconscious factor known as instinct.
There is, therefore, no justification for visualizing the archetype
as anything other than the image of instinct in man.7

From this one should not jump to the conclusion that the
world of religious ideas can be reduced to "nothing but" a
biological basis, and it would be equally erroneous to suppose
that, when approached in this way, the religious phenomenon

8 "Sit, ut est, aut non sit."

7 "On the Nature of the Psyche," par. 415.

179

AION

is "psychologized" and dissolved in smoke. No reasonable per-
son would conclude that the reduction of man's morphology to
a four-legged saurian amounts to a nullification of the human
form, or, alternatively, that the latter somehow explains itself.
For behind all this looms the vast and unsolved riddle of life
itself and of evolution in general, and the question of overriding
importance in the end is not the origin of evolution but its goal.
Nevertheless, when a living organism is cut off from its roots, it
loses the connections with the foundations of its existence and
must necessarily perish. When that happens, anamnesis of the
origins is a matter of life and death.

280 Myths and fairytales give expression to unconscious proc-
esses, and their retelling causes these processes to come alive
again and be recollected, thereby re-establishing the connection
between conscious and unconscious. What the separation of the
two psychic halves means, the psychiatrist knows only too well.
He knows it as dissociation of the personality, the root of all
neuroses: the conscious goes to the right and the unconscious to
the left. As opposites never unite at their own level (tertium non
datur!), a supraordinate "third" is always required, in which
the two parts can come together. And since the symbol derives
as much from the conscious as from the unconscious, it is able to
unite them both, reconciling their conceptual polarity through
its form and their emotional polarity through its numinosity.

281 For this reason the ancients often compared the symbol to
water, a case in point being tao, where yang and yin are united.
Tao is the "valley spirit," the winding course of a river. The
symbolum of the Church is the aqua doctrinae, corresponding
to the wonder-working "divine" water of alchemy, whose double
aspect is represented by Mercurius. The healing and renewing
properties of this symbolical water— whether it be tao, the bap-
tismal water, or the elixir— point to the therapeutic character of
the mythological background from which this idea comes. Physi-
cians who were versed in alchemy had long recognized that their
arcanum healed, or was supposed to heal, not only the diseases
of the body but also those of the mind. Similarly, modern psy-
chotherapy knows that, though there are many interim solu-
tions, there is, at the bottom of every neurosis, a moral problem
of opposites that cannot be solved rationally, and can be an-
swered only by a supraordinate third, by a symbol which ex-

180

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

presses both sides. This was the 'Veritas" (Dorn) or "theoria"
(Paracelsus) for which the old physicians and alchemists strove,
and they could do so only by incorporating the Christian revela-
tion into their world of ideas. They continued the work of the
Gnostics (who were, most of them, not so much heretics as the-
ologians) and the Church Fathers in a new era, instinctively
recognizing that new wine should not be put into old bottles,
and that, like a snake changing its skin, the old myth needs to
be clothed anew in every renewed age if it is not to lose its
therapeutic effect.
282 The problems which the integration of the unconscious sets
modern doctors and psychologists can only be solved along the
lines traced out by history, and the upshot will be a new assimila-
tion of the traditional myth. This, however, presupposes the
continuity of historical development. Naturally the present
tendency to destroy all tradition or render it unconscious could
interrupt the normal process of development for several hun-
dred years and substitute an interlude of barbarism. Wherever
the Marxist Utopia prevails, this has already happened. But a
predominantly scientific and technological education, such as is
the usual thing nowadays, can also bring about a spiritual
regression and a considerable increase of psychic dissociation.
With hygiene and prosperity alone a man is still far from health,
otherwise the most enlightened and most comfortably off among
us would be the healthiest. But in regard to neuroses that is not
the case at all, quite the contrary. Loss of roots and lack of tradi-
tion neuroticize the masses and prepare them for collective
hysteria. Collective hysteria calls for collective therapy, which
consists in abolition of liberty and terrorization. Where rational-
istic materialism holds sway, states tend to develop less into
prisons than into lunatic asylums.

283 I have tried, in the foregoing, to indicate the kind of psychic
matrix into which the Christ-figure was assimilated in the course
of the centuries. Had there not been an affinity— magnet!— be-
tween the figure of the Redeemer and certain contents of the
unconscious, the human mind would never have been able to
perceive the light shining in Christ and seize upon it so pas-
sionately. The connecting link here is the archetype of the God-

181

AION

man, which on the one hand became historical reality in Christ,
and on the other, being eternally present, reigns over the soul
in the form of a supraordinate totality, the self. The God-man,
like the priest in the vision of Zosimos, is a Kvpio? twv Trvev/xcnw,
not only "Lord of the spirits," but "Lord over the (evil) spirits,"
which is one of the essential meanings of the Christian Kyrios.8

284 The noncanonical fish symbol led us into this psychic matrix
and thus into a realm of experience where the unknowable
archetypes become living things, changing their name and guise
in never-ending succession and, as it were, disclosing their hid-
den nucleus by perpetually circumambulating round it. The
lapis that signifies God become man or man become God "has
a thousand names." It is not Christ; it is his parallel in the sub-
jective realm, which dogma calls Christ. Alchemy gives us, in
the lapis, a concrete idea of what Christ means in the realm of
subjective experience, and under what delusive or illuminative
disguises his actual presence may be experienced in its tran-
scendent ineffability. One could demonstrate the same thing in
the psychology of a modern individual, as I attempted to do in
Part II of Psychology and Alchemy.9 Only, this would be a
much more exacting task, running into great detail and requir-
ing a mass of personal biographical data with which one could fill
volumes. Such an undertaking would exceed my powers. I must
therefore rest content with having laid some of the historical
and conceptual foundations for this work of the future.

285 In conclusion, I would like to emphasize once again that the
fish symbol is a spontaneous assimilation of the Christ-figure of
the gospels, and is thus a symptom which shows us in what
manner and with what meaning the symbol was assimilated by
the unconscious. In this respect the patristic allegory of the cap-
ture of Leviathan (with the Cross as the hook, and the Crucified
as the bait) is highly characteristic: a content (fish) of the uncon-
scious (sea) has been caught and has attached itself to the Christ-
figure. Hence the expression used by St. Augustine: "de pro-
fundo levatus" (drawn from the deep). This is true enough of
the fish; but of Christ? The image of the fish came out of the

8 Like the Old Testament "Yahweh Zebaoth," Lord of Hosts. Cf. Maag, "Jahwas
Heerscharen."

8 Also in "Psychology and Religion"; "Relations between the Ego and the Un-
conscious"; and my commentary on The Secret of the Golden Floiver.

l82

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

depths of the unconscious as an equivalent of the historical
Christ figure, and if Christ was invoked as "Ichthys," this name
referred to what had come up out of the depths. The fish symbol
is thus the bridge between the historical Christ and the psychic
nature of man, where the archetype of the Redeemer dwells. In
this way Christ became an inner experience, the "Christ with-
in."

As I have shown, the alchemical fish symbolism leads direct
to the lapis, the salvator, servator, and deus terrenus; that is, psy-
chologically, to the self. We now have a new symbol in place of
the fish: a psychological concept of human wholeness. In as
much or in as little as the fish is Christ does the self mean God.
It is something that corresponds, an inner experience, an assim-
ilation of Christ into the psychic matrix, a new realization of
the divine Son, no longer in theriomorphic form, but expressed
in a conceptual or "philosophic" symbol. This, compared with
the mute and unconscious fish, marks a distinct increase in con-
scious development.10

10 For the significance of conscious development in relation to mythological sym-
bolism, see Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness.

183

XIII
GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

287 Since all cognition is akin to recognition, it should not come
as a surprise to find that what I have described as a gradual
process of development had already been anticipated, and more
or less prefigured, at the beginning of our era. We meet these
images and ideas in Gnosticism, to which we must now give our
attention; for Gnosticism was, in the main, a product of cul-
tural assimilation and is therefore of the greatest interest in
elucidating and defining the contents constellated by prophecies
about the Redeemer, or by his appearance in history, or by the
synchronicity of the archetype.1

288 in the Elenchos of Hippolytus the attraction between the
magnet and iron is mentioned, if I am not mistaken, three times.
It first appears in the doctrine of the Naassenes, who taught that
the four rivers of Paradise correspond to the eye, the ear, the
sense of smell, and the mouth. The mouth, through which
prayers go out and food goes in, corresponds to the fourth river,
the Euphrates. The well-known significance of the "fourth"
helps to explain its connection with the "whole" man, for the
fourth always makes a triad into a totality. The text says: "This
is the water above the firmament,2 of which, they say, the
Saviour spoke: 4If you knew who it is that asks, you would have
asked him, and he would have given you a spring of living water
to drink.' 3 To this water comes every nature to choose its own

1 Unfortunately it is not possible for me to elucidate or even to document this
statement here. But, as Rhine's ESP (extrasensory perception) experiments show,
any intense emotional interest or fascination is accompanied by phenomena
which can only be explained by a psychic relativity of time, space, and causality.
Since the archetypes usually have a certain numinosity, they can arouse just that
fascination which is accompanied by synchronistic phenomena. These consist in
the meaningful coincidence of two or more causally unrelated facts. For details

1 would refer the reader to my "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle."

2 Genesis 1:7. 3 Non-verbatim quotation from John 4 : 10.

184

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

substances, and from this water goes forth to every nature
that which is proper to it, more [certainly] than iron to the
Heracleian stone," 4 etc.

289 As the reference to John 4:10 shows, the wonderful water
of the Euphrates has the property of the aqua doctrinae, which
perfects every nature in its individuality and thus makes man
whole too. It does this by giving him a kind of magnetic power
by which he can attract and integrate that which belongs to him.
The Naassene doctrine is, plainly, a perfect parallel to the
alchemical view already discussed: the doctrine is the magnet
that makes possible the integration of man as well as the lapis.

«9° In the Peratic doctrine, so many ideas of this kind reappear
that Hippolytus even uses the same metaphors, though the
meaning is more subtle. No one, he says, can be saved without
the Son:

But this is the serpent. For it is he who brought the signs of the
Father down from above, and it is he who carries them back again
after they have been awakened from sleep, transferring them thither
from hence as substances proceeding from the Substanceless. This,
they say, is [what is meant by] the saying, "I am the Door." 5 But
they say he transfers them to those whose eyelids are closed,6 as
naphtha draws everywhere the fire to itself,7 more than the Hera-
cleian stone draws iron . . .8 Thus, they say, the perfect race of
men, made in the image [of the Father] and of the same substance
[homoonsion], is drawn from the world by the Serpent, even as it
was sent down by him; but naught else [is so drawn].9

291 Here the magnetic attraction does not come from the doc-
trine or the water but from the "Son," who is symbolized by the
serpent, as in John 3 : 14.10 Christ is the magnet that draws to

±Elenchos, V, g, i8f. (Cf. Legge trans., I, pp. i43f.) "Heracleian stone" = magnet.
5 John 10 : 9: "I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved."
6 1 use the reading: Ka/xixvovaiv 6<f>8a\fiov p\£<papov. Does this mean those who
close their eyes to the world?

7 The naphtha analogy reappears in the teachings of the Basilidians (Elenchos,
VII, 24, 6f.). There it refers to the son of the highest archon, who comprehends
the vo-qfiara airb rijs fiaKaplas vISttjtos (idea of the blessed sonship). Hippolytus'
exposition seems to be a trifle confused at this point.

8 Several more metaphors now follow, and it should be noted that they are the
same as in the passage previously quoted (V, 9, 19).

9 Elenchos, V, 17, 8ff. (Cf. Legge trans., I, pp. 158L)

10 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of man be lifted up."

185

AION

itself those parts or substances in man that are of divine origin,
the narpiKol xapa/c-njpe? (signs of the Father), and carries them back
to their heavenly birthplace. The serpent is an equivalent of the
fish. The consensus of opinion interpreted the Redeemer equally
as a fish and a serpent; he is a fish because he rose from the un-
known depths, and a serpent because he came mysteriously out
of the darkness. Fishes and snakes are favourite symbols for
describing psychic happenings or experiences that suddenly dart
out of the unconscious and have a frightening or redeeming
effect. That is why they are so often expressed by the motif of
helpful animals. The comparison of Christ with the serpent is
more authentic than that with the fish, but, for all that, it was
not so popular in primitive Christianity. The Gnostics favoured
it because it was an old-established symbol for the "good" genius
loci, the Agathodaimon, and also for their beloved Nous. Both
symbols are of inestimable value when it comes to the natural,
instinctive interpretation of the Christ-figure. Theriomorphic
symbols are very common in dreams and other manifestations
of the unconscious. They express the psychic level of the con-
tent in question; that is to say, such contents are at a stage of
unconsciousness that is as far from human consciousness as the
psyche of an animal. Warm-blooded or cold-blooded vertebrates
of all kinds, or even invertebrates, thus indicate the degree of
unconsciousness. It is important for psychopathologists to know
this, because these contents can produce, at all levels, symptoms
that correspond to the physiological functions and are localized
accordingly. For instance, the symptoms may be distinctly corre-
lated with the cerebrospinal and the sympathetic nervous sys-
tem. The Sethians may have guessed something of this sort, for
Hippolytus mentions, in connection with the serpent, that they
compared the "Father" with the cerebrum (iyKe<pa\ov) and the
"Son" with the cerebellum and spinal cord (TrapeyKe^aXU
SpaKovTouBrj's). The snake does in fact symbolize "cold-blooded,"
inhuman contents and tendencies of an abstractly intellectual as
well as a concretely animal nature: in a word, the extra-human
quality in man.
*9* The third reference to the magnet is to be found in Hippoly-
tus' account of the Sethian doctrine. This has remarkable
analogies with the alchemical doctrines of the Middle Ages,

186

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

though no direct transmission can be proved. It expounds, in
Hippolytus' words, a theory of "composition and mixture": the
ray of light from above mingles with the dark waters below in
the form of a minute spark. At the death of the individual, and
also at his figurative death as a mystical experience, the two
substances unmix themselves. This mystical experience is the
divisio and separatio of the composite (to Sixdo-ai koL x^p^at ra
avyKeKpafxiva). I purposely give the Latin terms used in medieval
alchemy, because they denote essentially the same thing as do
the Gnostic concepts. The separation or unmixing enables the
alchemist to extract the anima or spiritus from the prima ma-
teria. During this operation the helpful Mercurius appears with
the dividing sword (used also by the adept!), which the Sethians
refer to Matthew 10 : 34: "I came not to send peace, but a
sword." The result of the unmixing is that what was previously
mixed up with the "other" is now drawn to "its own place" and
to that which is "proper" or "akin" to it, "like iron to the mag-
net" (<35s (Tib'ripos [jrpds] 'Hpd/eXetov \idov).11 In the same way, the
spark or ray of light, "having received from the teaching and
learning its proper place, hastens to the Logos, which comes
from above in the form of a slave . . . more [quickly] than iron
[flies] to the magnet." 12
293 Here the magnetic attraction comes from the Logos. This
denotes a thought or idea that has been formulated and articu-
lated, hence a content and a product of consciousness. Conse-
quently the Logos is very like the aqua doctrinae, but whereas
the Logos has the advantage of being an autonomous person-
ality, the latter is merely a passive object of human action. The
Logos is nearer to the historical Christ-figure, just as the "water"
is nearer to the magical water used in ritual (ablution, aspersion,

11 Here, as in the previous passages about the magnet, mention is made of
electron (amber) and the sea-hawk, emphasis being laid on the bird's centre.

12 Elenchos, V, 21, 8 (Legge trans., I, p. 168). The ray of light (radius) plays an
analogous role in alchemy. Dorn (Theatr. chem., I, p. 276) speaks of the "invisible
rays of heaven meeting together at the centre of the earth," and there, as
Michael Maier says, shining with a "heavenly light like a carbuncle" (Symbola
aureae mensae, 1617, p. 377). The arcane substance is extracted from the ray, and
constitutes its "shadow" (umbra), as the "Tractatus aureus" says (Ars chemica,
1566, p. 15). The aqua permanent is extracted from the rays of the sun and moon
by the magnet (Mylius, Philosophia reformata, p. 314), or the rays of the sun are
united in the "silver water" (Beatus, "Aurelia occulta," Theatr. chem., IV, p. 563).

187

AION

baptism). Our three examples of magnetic action suggest three
different forms of magnetic agent:

1. The agent is an inanimate and in itself passive substance,
water. It is drawn from the depths of the well, handled by
human hands, and used according to man's needs. It signifies
the visible doctrine, the aqua doctrinae or the Logos, commu-
nicated to others by word of mouth and by ritual.

2. The agent is an animate, autonomous being, the serpent.
It appears spontaneously or comes as a surprise; it fascinates; its
glance is staring, fixed, unrelated; its blood cold, and it is a
stranger to man: it crawls over the sleeper, he finds it in a shoe
or in his pocket. It expresses his fear of everything inhuman and
his awe of the sublime, of what is beyond human ken. It is the
lowest (devil) and the highest (son of God, Logos, Nous, Aga-
thodaimon). The snake's presence is frightening, one finds it in
unexpected places at unexpected moments. Like the fish, it
represents and personifies the dark and unfathomable, the
watery deep, the forest, the night, the cave. When a primitive
says "snake," he means an experience of something extrahuman.
The snake is not an allegory or metaphor, for its own peculiar
form is symbolic in itself, and it is essential to note that the
"Son" has the form of a snake and not the other way round: the
snake does not signify the "Son."

3. The agent is the Logos, a philosophical idea and abstrac-
tion of the bodily and personal son of God on the one hand, and
on the other the dynamic power of thoughts and words.

294 It is clear that these three symbols seek to describe the un-
knowable essence of the incarnate God. But it is equally clear
that they are hypostatized to a high degree: it is real water, and
not figurative water, that is used in ritual. The Logos was in the
beginning, and God was the Logos, long before the Incarnation.
The emphasis falls so much on the "serpent" that the Ophites
celebrated their eucharistic feast with a live snake, no less
realistic than the Aesculapian snake at Epidaurus. Similarly,
the "fish" is not just the secret language of the mystery, but, as
the monuments show, it meant something in itself. Moreover,
it acquired its meaning in primitive Christianity without any
real support from the written tradition, whereas the serpent can
at least be referred back to an authentic logion.

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GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

295 All three symbols are phenomena of assimilation that are in
themselves of a numinous nature and therefore have a certain
degree of autonomy. Indeed, had they never made their appear-
ance, it would have meant that the annunciation of the Christ-
figure was ineffective. These phenomena not only prove the
effectiveness of the annunciation, but provide the necessary
conditions in which the annunciation can take effect. In other

s words, the symbols represent the prototypes of the Christ-figure
that were slumbering in man's unconscious and were then called
awake by his actual appearance in history and, so to speak,
magnetically attracted. That is why Meister Eckhart uses the
same symbolism to describe Adam's relation to the Creator on
the one hand and to the lower creatures on the other.13

296 This magnetic process revolutionizes the ego-oriented psyche
by setting up, in contradistinction to the ego, another goal or
centre which is characterized by all manner of names and sym-
bols: fish, serpent, centre of the sea-hawk,14 point, monad, cross,
paradise, and so on. The myth of the ignorant demiurge who
imagined he was the highest divinity illustrates the perplexity
of the ego when it can no longer hide from itself the knowledge
that it has been dethroned by a supraordinate authority. The
"thousand names" of the lapis philosophorum correspond to
the innumerable Gnostic designations for the Anthropos, which
make it quite obvious what is meant: the greater, more com-
prehensive Man, that indescribable whole consisting of the sum
of conscious and unconscious processes. This objective whole,
the antithesis of the subjective ego-psyche, is what I have called
the self, and this corresponds exactly to the idea of the An-
thropos.

297 When, in treating a case of neurosis, we try to supplement
the inadequate attitude (or adaptedness) of the conscious mind

13 "And therefore the highest power, seeing her stability in God, communicates
it to the lowest, that they may discern good and evil. In this union Adam
dwelt, and while this union lasted he had all the power of creatures in his highest
power. As when a lodestone exerts its power upon a needle and draws it to itself,
the needle receives sufficient power to pass on to all the needles beneath, which
it raises and attaches to the lodestone." (Meister Eckhart, trans, by Evans, I,
p. 274, slightly modified.) 14 [Cf. n. 11, supra.]

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AION

by adding to it contents of the unconscious, our aim is to create
a wider personality whose centre of gravity does not necessarily
coincide with the ego, but which, on the contrary, as the pa-
tient's insights increase, may even thwart his ego-tendencies.
Like a magnet, the new centre attracts to itself that which is
proper to it, the "signs of the Father," i.e., everything that per-
tains to the original and unalterable character of the individual
ground-plan. All this is older than the ego and acts towards it as
the "blessed, nonexistent God" of the Basilidians acted towards
the archon of the Ogdoad, the demiurge, and— paradoxically
enough— as the son of the demiurge acted towards his father.
The son proves superior in that he has knowledge of the message
from above and can therefore tell his father that he is not the
highest God. This apparent contradiction resolves itself when
we consider the underlying psychological experience. On the
one hand, in the products of the unconscious the self appears as
it were a priori, that is, in well-known circle and quaternity sym-
bols which may already have occurred in the earliest dreams of
childhood, long before there was any possibility of conscious-
ness or understanding. On the other hand, only patient and
painstaking work on the contents of the unconscious, and the
resultant synthesis of conscious and unconscious data, can lead
to a "totality," which once more uses circle and quaternity sym-
bols for purposes of self-description.15 In this phase, too, the
original dreams of childhood are remembered and understood.
The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the
nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, ex-
pressed this paradox through the symbol of the uroboros, the
snake that bites its own tail.

The same knowledge, formulated differently to suit the age
they lived in, was possessed by the Gnostics. The idea of an un-
conscious was not unknown to them. For instance, Epiphanius
quotes an excerpt from one of the Valentinian letters, which says:
"In the beginning the Autopator contained in himself every-
thing that is, in a state of unconsciousness [lit., 'not-knowing':
dyvwo-ta]." 16 It was Professor G. Quispel who kindly drew my

15 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 127ft-., and "A Study in the Process of
Individuation," in Part I of vol. 9.

16 'E£ &PXVS b AvTovrarup avrbs kv eavrui irepielxe to. Trdvra ovra ev eavrio kv
ayvwala /cr\. Panarium, XXXI, cap. V (Oehler edn., I, p. 314).

190

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

attention to this passage. He also points out the passage in Hip-
poly tus: 6 Uarrjp ... 6 avewo-qros Kal avov<nos, 6 fi^re appev fxr/re OrjXv,

which he translates: "le Pere . . . qui est depourvu de con-
science et de substance, celui qui est ni masculin, ni feminin." 17
So the "Father" is not only unconscious and without the quality
of being, but also nirdvandva, without opposites, lacking all
qualities and therefore unknowable. This describes the state of
the unconscious. The Valentinian text gives the Autopator more
positive qualities: "Some called him the ageless Aeon, eternally
young, male and female, who contains everything in himself
and is [himself] contained by nothing." In him was Iwoia, con-
sciousness, which "conveys the treasures of the greatness to
those who come from the greatness." But the presence of hvoia
does not prove that the Autopator himself is conscious, for the
differentiation of consciousness results only from the syzygies
and tetrads that follow afterwards, all of them symbolizing
processes of conjunction and composition. "Ewoia must be
thought of here as the latent possibility of consciousness. Oehler
translates it as mens, Cornarius as intelligentia and notio.
299 St. Paul's concept of ayvoia (ignorantia) may not be too far
removed from dyiwia, since both mean the initial, unconscious
condition of man. When God "looked down" on the times of
ignorance, the Greek word used here, WeptSwv (Vulgate: despi-
ciens) has the connotation 'to disdain, despise.' 18 At all events,
Gnostic tradition says that when the highest God saw what
miserable, unconscious creatures these human beings were
whom the demiurge had created, who were not even able to
walk upright, he immediately got the work of redemption under
way.19 And in the same passage in the Acts, Paul reminds the
Athenians that they were "God's offspring," 20 and that God,
looking back disapprovingly on "the times of ignorance," had
sent the message to mankind, commanding "all men every-

17 Elenchos, VI, 42, 4; Quispel, "Note sur 'Basilide,' " p. 115.

18 Acts 17 : 30.

19 Cf. Scott, Hermetica (I, pp. 150L) where there is a description of the krater
filled with Nous which God sent down to earth. Those whose hearts strive after
consciousness (yvupi^ovca i-rrl rl yeyovas) can "baptize" themselves in the krater
and thereby obtain Nous. "God says that the man filled with Nous should know
himself" (pp. i26f.).

20 Vivos ovv VTrdpxovres rov Oeov (Acts 17 : 29).

191

AION

where to repent." Because that earlier condition seemed to be
altogether too wretched, the fxerdvoia (transformation of mind)
took on the moral character of repentance of sins, with the result
that the Vulgate could translate it as "poenitentiam agere." 21
The sin to be repented, of course, is ayvoia or ayvuma, uncon-
sciousness.22 As we have seen, it is not only man who is in this
condition, but also, according to the Gnostics, the avewo-qros, the
God without consciousness. This idea is more or less in line
with the traditional Christian view that God was transformed
during the passage from the Old Testament to the New, and,
from being the God of wrath, changed into the God of Love—
a thought that is expressed very clearly by Nicolaus Caussin in
the seventeenth century.23
3°o In this connection I must mention the results of Riwkah
Scharf's examination of the figure of Satan in the Old Testa-
ment.24 With the historical transformation of the concept of
Satan the image of Yahweh changes too, so that one can well say
that there was a differentiation of the God-image even in the
Old Testament, not to speak of the New. The idea that the
world-creating Deity is not conscious, but may be dreaming, is
found also in Hindu literature:

Who knows how it was, and who shall declare
Whence it was born and whence it came?
The gods are later than this creation;
Who knows, then, whence it has sprung?

Whence this created world came,

And whether he made it or not,

He alone who sees all in the highest heaven

Knows— or does not know.25

21 Likewise the ^Tavoelre of the Baptist (Matt. 3 : 2).

22 Cf. the t6 rrjs kyvolas &/j.apTrma, 'sin of unconsciousness' in pseudo-Clement
(Homilies XIX, cap. XXII), referring to the man who was born blind (John 9 : 1).

23 Polyhistor symbolicus, p. 348: "God, formerly the God of vengeance, who with
thunders and lightnings brought the world to disorder, took his rest in the lap
of a Virgin, nay, in her womb, and was made captive by love."

24 "Die Gestalt des Satans im Alten Testament."

25 Rig-Veda, X, 129. (Cf. MacNicol trans., Hindu Scriptures, p. 37.)

192

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

301 Meister Eckhart's theology knows a "Godhead" of which no
qualities, except unity and being,26 can be predicated; 27 it "is
becoming," it is not yet Lord of itself, and it represents an
absolute coincidence of opposites: "But its simple nature is of
forms formless; of becoming becomingless; of beings beingless;
of things thingless," etc.28 Union of opposites is equivalent to
unconsciousness, so far as human logic goes, for consciousness
presupposes a differentiation into subject and object and a rela-
tion between them. Where there is no "other," or it does not yet
exist, all possibility of consciousness ceases. Only the Father, the
God "welling" out of the Godhead, "notices himself," becomes
"beknown to himself," and "confronts himself as a Person." So,
from the Father, comes the Son, as the Father's thought of his
own being. In his original unity "he knows nothing" except the
"suprareal" One which he is. As the Godhead is essentially un-
conscious,29 so too is the man who lives in God. In his sermon on
"The Poor in Spirit" (Matt. 5 : 3), the Meister says: "The man
who has this poverty has everything he was when he lived not in
any wise, neither in himself, nor in truth, nor in God. He is so
quit and empty of all knowing that no knowledge of God is alive
in him; for while he stood in the eternal nature of God, there
lived in him not another: what lived there was himself. And so
we say this man is as empty of his own knowledge as he was
when he was not anything; he lets God work what he will, and
he stands empty as when he came from God." 30 Therefore he
should love God in the following way: "Love him as he is: a not-
God, a not-spirit, a not-person, a not-image; as a sheer, pure,
clear One, which he is, sundered from all secondness; and in
this One let us sink eternally, from nothing to nothing. So help
us God. Amen." 31

26 "Being" is controversial. The Master says: "God in the Godhead is a spiritual
substance, so unfathomable that we can say nothing about it except that it is
naught [niht ensi\. To say it is aught [iht] were more lying than true." (Cf.
Evans trans., I, p. 354.)

27 "To this end there is no way, it is beyond all ways." (Cf. ibid., p. 211.)

28 ". . . von formen formelos, von werdenne werdelos, von wesenne weselos und
ist von sachen sachelos." (Cf. ibid., p. 352.)

29 "[The will] is the nobler in that it plunges into unknowing, which is God."
Cf. ibid., p. 351. Cf. also n. 16, supra: ayvuxria.

30 Evans, I, p. 219.

31 End of the sermon "Renovamini spiritu" (Eph. 4 : 23). Ibid., pp. 247L

193

AION

3°2 The world-embracing spirit of Meister Eckhart knew, with-
out discursive knowledge, the primordial mystical experience of
India as well as of the Gnostics, and was itself the finest flower
on the tree of the "Free Spirit" that flourished at the beginning
of the eleventh century. Well might the writings of this Master
lie buried for six hundred years, for "his time was not yet come."
Only in the nineteenth century did he find a public at all
capable of appreciating the grandeur of his mind.

3°3 These utterances on the nature of the Deity express trans-
formations of the God-image which run parallel with changes in
human consciousness, though one would be at a loss to say which
is the cause of the other. The God-image is not something in-
vented, it is an experience that comes upon man spontaneously
—as anyone can see for himself unless he is blinded to the truth
by theories and prejudices. The unconscious God-image can
therefore alter the state of consciousness, just as the latter can
modify the God-image once it has become conscious. This, obvi-
ously, has nothing to do with the "prime truth," the unknown
God— at least, nothing that could be verified. Psychologically,
however, the idea of God's ayvwaia, or of the avevvo-qros 0eo?, is of
the utmost importance, because it identifies the Deity with the
numinosity of the unconscious. The atman / purusha philosophy
of the East and, as we have seen, Meister Eckhart in the West
both bear witness to this.

3°4 Now if psychology is to lay hold of this phenomenon, it can
only do so if it expressly refrains from passing metaphysical
judgments, and if it does not presume to profess convictions to
which it is ostensibly entitled on the ground of scientific experi-
ence. But of this there can be no question whatever. The one
and only thing that psychology can establish is the presence of
pictorial symbols, whose interpretation is in no sense fixed be-
forehand. It can make out, with some certainty, that these
symbols have the character of "wholeness" and therefore presum-
ably mean wholeness. As a rule they are "uniting" symbols, repre-
senting the conjunction of a single or double pair of opposites,
the result being either a dyad or a quaternion. They arise from
the collision between the conscious and the unconscious and
from the confusion which this causes (known in alchemy as
"chaos" or "nigredo"). Empirically, this confusion takes the
form of restlessness and disorientation. The circle and qua-

194

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

ternity symbolism appears at this point as a compensating prin-
ciple of order, which depicts the union of warring opposites as
already accomplished, and thus eases the way to a healthier and
quieter state ("salvation"). For the present, it is not possible for
psychology to establish more than that the symbols of wholeness
mean the wholeness of the individual.32 On the other hand, it
has to admit, most emphatically, that this symbolism uses images
or schemata which have always, in all the religions, expressed
the universal "Ground," the Deity itself. Thus the circle is a
well-known symbol for God; and so (in a certain sense) is the
cross, the quaternity in all its forms, e.g., Ezekiel's vision, the
Rex gloriae with the four evangelists, the Gnostic Barbelo
("God in four") and Kolorbas ("all four"); the duality (tao,
hermaphrodite, father-mother); and finally, the human form
(child, son, anthropos) and the individual personality (Ghrist
and Buddha), to name only the most important of the motifs
here used.
305 All these images are found, empirically, to be expressions for
the unified wholeness of man. The fact that this goal goes by the
name of "God" proves that it has a numinous character; and in-
deed, experiences, dreams, and visions of this kind do have a
fascinating and impressive quality which can be spontaneously
felt even by people who are not prejudiced in their favour by
prior psychological knowledge. So it is no wonder that naive
minds make no distinction between God and the image they
have experienced. Wherever, therefore, we find symbols indica-
tive of psychic wholeness, we encounter the naive idea that they
stand for God. In the case of those quite common Romanesque
pictures of the Son of Man accompanied by three angels with
animal heads and one with a human head, for example, it would
be simpler to assume that the Son of Man meant the ordinary
man and that the problem of one against three referred to the
well-known psychological schema of one differentiated and
three undifferentiated functions. But this interpretation would,
according to the traditional view, devalue the symbol, for it

32 There are people who, oddly enough, think it a weakness in me that I refrain
from metaphysical judgments. A scientist's conscience does not permit him to
assert things he cannot prove or at least show to be probable. No assertion has
ever yet brought anything corresponding to it into existence. "What he says, is"
is a prerogative exclusive to God.

195

AION

means the second Person of the Godhead in its universal, four-
fold aspect. Psychology cannot of course adopt this view as its
own; it can only establish the existence of such statements and
point out, by way of comparison, that essentially the same sym-
bols, in particular the dilemma of one and three, often appear
in the spontaneous products of the unconscious, where they
demonstrably refer to the psychic totality of the individual.
They indicate the presence of an archetype of like nature, one
of whose derivates would seem to be the quaternity of functions
that orient consciousness. But, since this totality exceeds the
individual's consciousness to an indefinite and indeterminable
extent, it invariably includes the unconscious in its orbit and
hence the totality of all archetypes. But the archetypes are com-
plementary equivalents of the "outside world" and therefore
possess a "cosmic" character. This explains their numinosity and
"godlikeness."

3°6 To make my exposition more complete, I would like to men-
tion some of the Gnostic symbols for the universal "Ground" or
arcanum, and especially those synonyms which signify the
"Ground." Psychology takes this idea as an image of the uncon-
scious background and begetter of consciousness. The most im-
portant of these images is the figure of the demiurge. The
Gnostics have a vast number of symbols for the source or origin,
the centre of being, the Creator, and the divine substance
hidden in the creature. Lest the reader be confused by this
wealth of images, he should always remember that each new
image is simply another aspect of the divine mystery immanent
in all creatures. My list of Gnostic symbols is no more than an
amplification of a single transcendental idea, which is so com-
prehensive and so difficult to visualize in itself that a great many
different expressions are required in order to bring out its vari-
ous aspects.

3°7 According to Irenaeus, the Gnostics held that Sophia repre-
sents the world of the Ogdoad,33 which is a double quaternity.

33 A dversus haereses, I, 30, 3. In the system of Barbelo-Gnosis (ibid., 29, 4) the
equivalent of Sophia is Ilpovi>u<os, who "sinks into the lower regions." The name
Prunicus (wpovveiKos) means both 'carrying a burden' and 'lewd.' The latter con-
notation is more probable, because this Gnostic sect believed that, through the

196

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

In the form of a dove, she descended into the water and begot
Saturn, who is identical with Yahweh. Saturn, as we have already
mentioned, is the "other sun," the sol niger of alchemy. Here he
is the "primus Anthropus." He created the first man, who could
only crawl like a worm.34 Among the Naassenes, the demiurge
Esaldaios, "a fiery god, the fourth by number," is set up against
the Trinity of Father, Mother, and Son. The highest is the
Father, the Archanthropos, who is without qualities and is called
the higher Adam. In various systems Sophia takes the place of
the Protanthropos.35 Epiphanius mentions the Ebionite teach-
ing that Adam, the original man, is identical with Christ.36 In
Theodor Bar-Kuni the original man is the five elements (i.e.,
4 -|- i).37 In the Acts of Thomas, the dragon says of itself: "I am
the son ... of him that hurt and smote the four brethren
which stood upright." 38
308 The primordial image of the quaternity coalesces, for the
Gnostics, with the figure of the demiurge or Anthropos. He is,
as it were, the victim of his own creative act, for, when he

sexual act, they could recharge Barbelo with the pneuma that was lost in the
world. In Simon Magus it is Helen, the ii^r-qp and Iwoia, who "descended to the
lower regions . . . and generated the inferior powers, angels, and firmaments."
She was forcibly held captive by the lower powers (Irenaeus, I, 27, 1-4). She
corresponds to the much later alchemical idea of the "soul in fetters" (cf. Dorn,
Theatr. chem., I, pp. 298, 497; Mylius, Phil, ref., p. 262; Rosarium philosophorum
in Art. aurif., II, p. 284; "Platonis liber quartorum," Theatr. chem., V, pp.
i85f.; Vigenere, Theatr. chem., VI, p. 19). The idea derives from Greek alchemy
and can be found in Zosimos (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, xlix, 7; trans, in Psy-
chology and Alchemy, pars. 456ft. ). In the "Liber quartorum" it is of Sabaean
origin. See Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus (II, p. 494): "The soul
once turned towards matter, fell in love with it, and, burning with desire to
experience bodily pleasures, was no longer willing to tear herself away from it.
So was the world born." Among the Valentinians, Sophia Achamoth is the
Ogdoad. In Pistis Sophia (trans, by Mead, p. 362) she is the daughter of Barbelo.
Deluded by the false light of the demon Authades, she falls into imprisonment
in chaos. Irenaeus (I, 5, 2) calls the demiurge the Heptad, but Achamoth the
Ogdoad. In I, 7, 2 he says that the Saviour is compounded of four things in
repetition of the first Tetrad. A copy of the Four is the quaternity of elements
(I, 17, 1), and so are the four lights that stand round the Autogenes of Barbelo-
Gnosis (I, 29, 2). 34 Adv. haer., I, 24, 1.

35 Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, p. 170. 36 Panarium, XXX, 3.

37 Theodor Bar-Kuni, Inscriptiones manda'ites des coupes de Khouabir, Part 2,
p. 185.
33 The Apocryphal New Testament, ed. James, p. 379.

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AION

descended into Physis, he was caught in her embrace.39 The
image of the anima mundi or Original Man latent in the dark of
matter expresses the presence of a transconscious centre which,
because of its quaternary character and its roundness, must be
regarded as a symbol of wholeness. We may assume, with due
caution, that some kind of psychic wholeness is meant (for in-
stance, conscious -f- unconscious), though the history of the sym-
bol shows that it was always used as a God-image. Psychology, as
I have said, is not in a position to make metaphysical statements.
It can only establish that the symbolism of psychic wholeness
coincides with the God-image, but it can never prove that the
God-image is God himself, or that the self takes the place of
God.

3°9 This coincidence comes out very clearly in the ancient Egyp-
tian Heb-Sed festival, of which Colin Campbell gives the follow-
ing description: "The king comes out of an apartment called
the sanctuary, then he ascends into a pavilion open at the four
sides, with four staircases leading up to it. Carrying the emblems
of Osiris, he takes his seat on a throne, and turns to the four
cardinal points in succession. . . . It is a kind of second en-
thronement . , . and sometimes the king acts as a priest, mak-
ing offerings to himself. This last act may be regarded as the
climax of the deification of the king." 40

31(> All kingship is rooted in this psychology, and therefore, for
the anonymous individual of the populace, every king carries
the symbol of the self, All his insignia— crown, mantle, orb,
sceptre, starry orders, etc.— show him as the cosmic Anthropos,
who not only begets, but himself is, the world. He is the homo
maximus, whom we meet again in Swedenborg's speculations.
The Gnostics, too, constantly endeavoured to give visible form
and a suitable conceptual dress to this being, suspecting that
he was the matrix and organizing principle of consciousness. As
the "Phrygians" (Naassenes) say in Hippolytus,41 he is the "un-
divided point," the "grain of mustard seed" that grows into the
kingdom of God. This point is "present in the body/' But this
is known only to the trvevfiariKoi, the "spiritual" men as opposed
to the \pvxiK-oi and the vXlkoi ("material" men). He is to pijfxa tov

39 Bousset, pp. 1 14ft.

40 The Miraculous Birth of King AmonHotep III, p. 81.

41 Elenchos, V, 9, 5L (Legge trans., I, pp. i4of.).

198

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

Oeov, the utterance of God (sermo Dei), and the "matrix of the
Aeons, Powers, Intelligences, Gods, Angels, and Emissary
Spirits, of Being and Non-Being, of Begotten and Unbegotten,
of the Non-Intelligible Intelligible, of the Years, Moons, Days,
Hours. . . ." This point, "being nothing and consisting of
nothing," becomes a "certain magnitude incomprehensible by
thought." Hippolytus accuses the Naassenes of bundling every-
thing into their thought like the syncretists, for he obviously
cannot quite understand how the point, the "utterance of God,"
can have a human form. The Naassenes, he complains, also
call him the "polymorphous Attis," the young dying son of the
Great Mother, or, as the hymn cited by Hippolytus says, t6
Kare</>£5 aKova/xa 'Pea?, the 'dark rumour of Rhea.' In the hymn he
has the synonyms Adonis, Osiris, Adam, Korybas, Pan, Bacchus,
and TroLfxriv XevKw aarpuv^ 'shepherd of white stars.'

311 The Naassenes themselves considered Naas, the serpent, to
be their central deity, and they explained it as the "moist sub-
stance," in agreement with Thales of Miletus, who said water
was the prime substance on which all life depended. Similarly,
all living things depend on the Naas; "it contains within itself,
like the horn of the one-horned bull, the beauty of all things."
It "pervades everything, like the water that flows out of Eden
and divides into four sources" (apxas). "This Eden, they say, is
the brain." Three of the rivers of Paradise are sensory functions
(Pison = sight, Gihon = hearing, Tigris = smell), but the
fourth, the Euphrates, is the mouth, "the seat of prayer and the
entrance of food." As the fourth function it has a double sig-
nificance,42 denoting on the one hand the purely material ac-
tivity of bodily nourishment, while on the other hand it "glad-
dens,43 feeds, and forms [xapaKT-qpi&i] the spiritual, perfect [tc'Aoov]
man."44 The "fourth" is something special, ambivalent— a
daimonion. A good example of this is in Daniel 3 : 24L, where
the three men in the burning fiery furnace are joined by a
fourth, whose form was "like a son of God."

31* The water of the Euphrates is the "water above the firma-
ment," the "living water of Which the Saviour spoke,"45 and

42 Psychology and Alchemy, index, s.v. "Axiom of Maria." Cf. infra, pars. $%&.

43 eixfrpabet, a play on the word ei<t>padr}s} 'well-speaking.'

44 Elenchos, V, 9, i5ff. [Cf. Legge, I, p. 143.]

45 An allusion to John 4:10.

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AION

possessing, as we have seen, magnetic properties. It is that
miraculous water from which the olive draws its oil and the
grape the wine. "That man," continues Hippolytus, as though
still speaking of the water of the Euphrates, "is without honour
in the world." 46 This is an allusion to the i-eAeios avOpuiros. In-
deed, this water is the "perfect man," the pr/fia Beov, the Word
sent by God. "From the living water we spiritual men choose
that which is ours," 47 for every nature, when dipped in this
water, "chooses its own substances . . . and from this water
goes forth to every nature that which is proper to it."48 The
water or, as we could say, this Christ is a sort of panspermia, a
matrix of all possibilities, from which the irvevixariKo? chooses
"his Osob," his idiosyncrasy,49 that "flies to him more [quickly]
than iron to the magnet." But the "spiritual men" attain their
proper nature by entering in through the "true door," Jesus
Makarios (the blessed), and thus obtaining knowledge of their
own wholeness, i.e., of the complete man. This man, unhon-
oured in the world, is obviously the inner, spiritual man, who
becomes conscious for those who enter in through Christ, the
door to life, and are illuminated by him. Two images are
blended here: the image of the "strait gate," M and that of
John 14 : 6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father but through me." 51 They represent an
integration process that is characteristic of psychological indi-
viduation. As formulated, the water symbol continually coa-
lesces with Christ and Christ with the inner man. This, it seems
to me, is not a confusion of thought but a psychologically cor-
rect formulation of the facts, since Christ as the "Word" is in-
deed the "living water" and at the same time the symbol of the
inner "complete" man, the self.
3*3 For the Naassenes, the universal "Ground" is the Original
Man, Adam, and knowledge of him is regarded as the begin-

46 Legge, I, p. 144. 47 Elenchos, V, 9, 21.

48 V, 9, 19 (Legge trans., p. 144).

49 This means the integration of the self, which is also referred to in very similar
words in the Bogomil document discussed above (pars. 225ft.), concerning the
devil as world creator. He too finds what is "proper" (tdiov) to him.

50 Matt. 7 : 14: "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto
life."

61 The passage discussed here is in Elenchos, V, 9, 4ft (Legge trans., I, p. 140).

200

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

ning of perfection and the bridge to knowledge of God.52 He
is male/female; from him come "father and mother"; 53 he con-
sists of three parts: the rational (vocpov), the psychic, and the
earthly (Xolk6v). These three "came down together into one man,
Jesus," and "these three men spoke together, each of them from
his own substance to his own," i.e., from the rational to the
rational, etc. Through this doctrine Jesus is related to the
Original Man (Christ as second Adam). His soul is "of three
parts and (yet) one"— a Trinity.54 As examples of the Original
Man the text mentions the Cabiros55 and Oannes. The latter
had a soul capable of suffering, so that the "figure (wkdo-fjia) of
the great, most beautiful and perfect man, humbled to a slave,"
might suffer punishment. He is the "blessed nature, at once
hidden and revealed, of everything that has come to be and
will be," "the kingdom of heaven which is to be sought within
man" (lvr6^ avQp&icov), even "in children of seven years." 56 For
the Naassenes, says Hippolytus, place the "procreative nature of
the Whole in the procreative seed." 57 On the face of it, this
looks like the beginnings of a "sexual theory" concerning the
underlying psychic substance, reminiscent of certain modern
attempts in the same vein. But one should not overlook the fact
that in reality man's procreative power is only a special instance
of the "procreative nature of the Whole." "This, for them, is
the hidden and mystical Logos," which, in the text that follows,
is likened to the phallus of Osiris— "and they say Osiris is water."
Although the substance of this seed is the cause of all things, it
does not partake of their nature. They say therefore: "I become
what I will, and I am what I am." For he who moves everything
is himself unmoved. "He, they say, is alone good." 58 A further
synonym is the ithyphallic Hermes Kyllenios. "For they say
Hermes is the Logos, the interpreter and fashioner of what has

52 Elenchos, V, 6, 6: Qeov 5e ypuffts a.ir-r]pTi.op.£v't\ reXdwais ("Knowledge of God is
perfect wholeness").

53 V, 6, 5 (Legge trans., I, p. 120). 54 v, 6, 6f. (p. 121).

55 Nicknamed KaWlwais, 'with beautiful children' or 'the beautiful child.' (Elen-
chos, V, 7, 4.)

56 According to Hippocrates, a boy at seven years old is half a father. (Elenchos,
V, 7, 21.)

57 rrjv apxeyopwv <pvaiv tuv 6\uv kv Apx^ovu ffiripfiari. Archegonos is the tribal
father.

58 With express reference to Matt. 19: 17: "One is good, God."

201

AION

been, is, and will be." That is why he is worshipped as the
phallus, because he, like the male organ, "has an urge [6p^?jv]
from below upwards." 59

3J4 The fact that not only the Gnostic Logos but Christ himself
was drawn into the orbit of sexual symbolism is corroborated by
the fragment from the Interrogationes maiores Mariae, quoted
by Epiphanius.60 It is related there that Christ took this Mary
with him on to a mountain, where he produced a woman from
his side and began to have intercourse with her: ". . . seminis
sui defluxum assumpsisset, indicasse illi, quod oporteat sic
facere, ut vivamus."61 It is understandable that this crude sym-
bolism should offend our modern feelings. But it also appeared
shocking to Christians of the third and fourth centuries; and
when, in addition, the symbolism became associated with a
concretistic misunderstanding, as appeared to be the case in cer-
tain sects, it could only be rejected. That the author of the
Interrogationes was by no means ignorant of some such reaction
is evident from the text itself. It says that Mary received such a
shock that she fell to the ground. Christ then said to her:
"Wherefore do you doubt me, O you of little faith?" This was
meant as a reference to John 3:12: "If I have told you earthly
things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you
heavenly things?" and also to John 6 : 54: "Unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in
you."

3*5 This symbolism may well have been based, originally, on
some visionary experience, such as happens not uncommonly
today during psychological treatment. For the medical psy-
chologist there is nothing very lurid about it. The context itself
points the way to the right interpretation. The image expresses
a psychologem that can hardly be formulated in rational terms
and has, therefore, to make use of a concrete symbol, just as a
dream must when a more or less "abstract" thought comes up
during the abaissement du niveau mental that occurs in sleep.
These "shocking" surprises, of which there is certainly no lack

59 Cf. Legge trans., p. 128. 60 Panarium, XXVI, cap. VIII.

61 ". . . partaking of his flowing semen, showed that this was to be done, that

we might have life."

202

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

in dreams, should always be taken "as-if," even though they
clothe themselves in sensual imagery that stops at no scurrility
and no obscenity. They are unconcerned with offensiveness,
because they do not really mean it. It is as if they were stammer-
ing in their efforts to express the elusive meaning that grips
the dreamer's attention.62

The context of the vision (John 3:12) makes it clear that
the image should be taken not concretistically but symbolically;
for Christ speaks not of earthly things but of a heavenly or
spiritual mystery — a "mystery" not because he is hiding some-
thing or making a secret of it (indeed, nothing could be more
blatant than the naked obscenity of the vision!) but because its
meaning is still hidden from consciousness. The modern method
of dream-analysis and interpretation follows this heuristic rule.63
If we apply it to the vision, we arrive at the following result:

1. The mountain means ascent, particularly the mystical,
spiritual ascent to the heights, to the place of revelation where
the spirit is present. This motif is so well known that there is no
need to document it.64

2. The central significance of the Christ-figure for that
epoch has been abundantly proved. In Christian Gnosticism it
was a visualization of God as the Archanthropos (Original Man
= Adam), and therefore the epitome of man as such: "Man
and the Son of Man." Christ is the inner man who is reached by
the path of self-knowledge, "the kingdom of heaven within

62 On the other hand, I cannot rid myself of the impression that dreams do
occasionally twist things in a scurrilous way. This may have led Freud to the
singular assumption that they disguise and distort for so-called "moral" reasons.
However, this view is contradicted by the fact that dreams just as often do the
exact opposite. I therefore incline to the alchemical view that Mercurius— the
unconscious Nous— is a "trickster." [Cf. "The Spirit Mercurius" and "The Psy-
chology of the Trickster Figure."— Editors.]

63 But not the Freudian, "psychoanalytical" method, which dismisses the mani-
fest dream-content as a mere "facade," on the ground that the psychopathology
of hysteria leads one to suspect incompatible wishes as dream-motifs. The fact
that the dream as well as consciousness rest on an instinctual foundation has
nothing to do either with the meaning of the dream-figures or with that of the
conscious contents, for the essential thing in both cases is what the psyche has
made of the instinctual impulse. The remarkable thing about the Parthenon is
not that it consists of stone and was built to gratify the ambitions of the Atheni-
ans, but that it is— the Parthenon.

64 Cf. "Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales," par. 403.

203

AION

you." As the Anthropos he corresponds to what is empirically
the most important archetype and, as judge of the living and
the dead and king of glory, to the real organizing principle of the
unconscious, the quaternity, or squared circle of the self.85
In saying this I have not done violence to anything; my views
are based on the experience that mandala structures have the
meaning and function of a centre of the unconscious person-
ality.66 The quaternity of Christ, which must be borne in mind
in this vision, is exemplified by the cross symbol, the rex gloriae,
and Christ as the year.

3»9 3. The production of the woman from his side suggests that
he is interpreted as the second Adam. Bringing forth a woman
means that he is playing the role of the Creator-god in Genesis.67
Just as Adam, before the creation of Eve, was supposed by vari-
ous traditions to be male /female,68 so Christ here demonstrates
his androgyny in a drastic way.69 The Original Man is usually
hermaphroditic; in Vedic tradition too he produces his own
feminine half and unites with her. In Christian allegory the
woman sprung from Christ's side signifies the Church as the
Bride of the Lamb.

320 The splitting of the Original Man into husband and wife
expresses an act of nascent consciousness; it gives birth to a pair
of opposites, thereby making consciousness possible. For the
beholder of the miracle, Mary, the vision was the spontaneous
visualization or projection of an unconscious process in herself.
Experience shows that unconscious processes are compensatory
to a definite conscious situation. The splitting in the vision
would therefore suggest that it is compensating a conscious con-
dition of unity. This unity probably refers in the first place to
the figure of the Anthropos, the incarnate God, who was then in
the forefront of religious interest. He was, in Origen's words,

65 Cf. "The Psychology of Eastern Meditation," pars. 9421".

66 Cf. "A Study in the Process of Individuation."

67 This is consistent with his nature as the Logos and second Person of the
Trinity.

68 Naturally this view is rejected by the Church.

69 Three different interpretations of Christ are combined here. Such contamina-
tions are characteristic not only of Gnostic thinking but of all unconscious image-
formation.

204

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

the "Vir Unus," 70 the One Man. It was with this figure that
Mary was confronted in her vision. If we assume that the recipi-
ent of the vision was in reality a woman— an assumption that is
not altogether without grounds— then what she had been missing
in the pure, deified masculinity of Christ was the counterbalanc-
ing femininity. Therefore it was revealed to her: "I am both,
man and woman." This psychologem is still incorporated to-
day in the Catholic conception of Christ's androgyny as the
"Virgo de Virgine," though this is more a sententia communis
than a conclusio. Medieval iconography sometimes shows Christ
with breasts, in accordance with Song of Solomon 1:1: 'For
thy breasts are better than wine" (DV). In Mechthild of Magde-
burg, the soul remarks that when the Lord kissed her,71 he had,
contrary to expectation, no beard. The tokens of masculinity
were lacking. Mechthild had a vision similar to Mary's, dealing
with the same problem from a different angle: she saw herself
transported to a "rocky mountain" where the Blessed Virgin
sat, awaiting the birth of the divine child. When it was born,
she embraced it and kissed it three times. As the text points out,
the mountain is an allegory of the "spiritualis habitus," or
spiritual attitude. "Through divine inspiration she knew how
the Son is the innermost core [medulla] of the Father's heart."
This medulla is "strengthening, healing, and most sweet"; God's
"strength and greatest sweetness" are given to us through the
Son, the "Saviour and strongest, sweetest Comforter," but "the
innermost [core] of the soul is that sweetest thing." 72 From this
it is clear that Mechthild equates the "medulla" with the
Father's heart, the Son, and the inner man. Psychologically
speaking, "that sweetest thing" corresponds to the self, which is
indistinguishable from the God-image.

There is a significant difference between the two visions.
The antique revelation depicts the birth of Eve from Adam on

70 Gregory the Great, Expositiones in librum I Regum, Lib. I, cap. I (Migne,
P.L., vol. 79, col. 23): "For God and man is one Christ. Therefore in that he is
called one, he is shown to be incomparable." In accordance with the spirit of the
age, his incomparability or uniqueness is explained by the "excellence of his
virtue." It is, however, significant in itself.

71 "He offered her his rosy [sic!] mouth to kiss" (Liber gratiae spiritualis, fol. J
iw).

72 "Medulla vero animae est illud dulcissimum." Ibid., fol. B.

205

AION

the spiritual level of the second Adam (Christ), from whose side
the feminine pneuma, or second Eve, i.e., the soul, appears as
Christ's daughter. As already mentioned, in the Christian view
the soul is interpreted as the Church: she is the woman who
"embraces the man" 73 and anoints the Lord's feet. Mechthild's
vision is a continuation of the sacred myth: the daughter-bride
has become a mother and bears the Father in the shape of the
Son. That the Son is closely akin to the self is evident from the
emphasis laid on the quaternary nature of Christ: he has a
"fourfold voice" (quadruplex vox),7* his heart has four kinds
of pulse,75 and from his countenance go forth four rays of
light.76 In this image a new millennium is speaking. Meister
Eckhart, using a different formulation, says that "God is born
from the soul," and when we come to the Cherubinic Wan-
derer 77 of Angelus Silesius, God and the self coincide absolutely.
The times have undergone a profound change: the procreative
power no longer proceeds from God, rather is God born from
the soul. The mythologem of the young dying god has taken on
psychological form— a sign of further assimilation and conscious
realization.
322 4. But to turn back to the first vision: the bringing forth of
the woman is followed by copulation. The hieros gamos on the
mountain is a well-known motif,78 just as, in the old alchemical
pictures, the hermaphrodite has a fondness for elevated places.
The alchemists likewise speak of an Adam who always carries
his Eve around with him. Their coniunctio is an incestuous act,
performed not by father and daughter but, in accordance with
the changed times, by brother and sister or mother and son. The
latter variant corresponds to the ancient Egyptian mythologem
of Amen as Ka-mutef, which means 'husband of his mother,' or
of Mut, who is the "mother of her father and daughter of her

73 Gregory the Great; Migne, P.L., vol. 79, col. 23. Cf. Jerem. 31 : 22: "A woman
shall compass a man" (AV).

74 Liber gratiae spiritualis, fol. A viir. The quaternity refers to the four gospels.

75 ibid., fol. B iiv.

76 Ibid., fol. B viiv.

77 Cf. Flitch, Angelus Silesius, pp. i28ff.

78 For instance, the hieros gamos of Zeus and Hera on "the heights of Gargaros,"
Iliad, XIV, 246ft. (Cf. Rieu trans., p. 266.)

206

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

son." 79 The idea of self-copulation is a recurrent theme in
descriptions of the world creator: for instance, God splits into
his masculine and feminine halves,80 or he fertilizes himself in
a manner that could easily have served as a model for the Inter-
rogationes vision, if literary antecedents must be conjectured.
Thus the relevant passage in the Heliopolitan story of the Crea-
tion runs: "I, even I, had union with my clenched hand, I
joined myself in an embrace with my shadow, I poured seed into
my mouth, my own, I sent forth issue in the form of Shu, I sent
forth moisture in the form of Tefnut." 81

Although the idea of self-fertilization is not touched on in
our vision, there can be no doubt that there is a close connec-
tion between this and the idea of the cosmogonic self-creator.
Here, however, world creation gives place to spiritual re-
newal. That is why no visible creature arises from the taking in
of seed; it means a nourishing of life, "that we may live." And
because, as the text itself shows, the vision should be understood
on the "heavenly" or spiritual plane, the pouring out (aTroppota)
refers to a Ao'yo? o-Trep/xart/co?, which in the language of the gospels
means a living water "springing up into eternal life." The
whole vision reminds one very much of the related alchemical
symbolisms. Its drastic naturalism, unpleasantly obtrusive in
comparison with the reticence of ecclesiastical language, points
back on the one hand to archaic forms of religion whose ideas
and modes of expression had long since been superseded, but
forwards, on the other, to a still crude observation of Nature
that was just beginning to assimilate the archetype of man. This
attempt continued right up to the seventeenth century, when
Johannes Kepler recognized the Trinity as underlying the struc-
ture of the universe— in other words, when he assimilated this
archetype into the astronomer's picture of the world.82

79 Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Agypter, p. 94.

80 In the ancient Egyptian view God is "Father and Mother," and "begets and
gives birth to himself" (Brugsch, p. 97). The Indian Prajapati has intercourse
with his own split-off feminine half.

81 Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I, pp. 3iof.

82 I owe this idea to a lecture delivered by Professor W. Pauli, in Zurich, on the
archetypal foundations of Kepler's astronomy. Cf. his "The Influence of Arche-
typal Ideas" etc.

207

AION

324 After this digression on the phallic synonyms for the Origi-
nal Man, we will turn back to Hippolytus' account of the central
symbols of the Naassenes and continue with a list of statements
about Hermes.

325 Hermes is a conjurer of spirits (i/^xaywyo's), a guide of souls
(i/a^oTro/xTros), and a begetter of souls (i/or^v atrto?). But the souls
were "brought down from the blessed Man on high, the arch-
man Adamas, . . . into the form of clay, that they might serve
the demiurge of this creation, Esaldaios, a fiery god, the fourth
by number." 83 Esaldaios corresponds to Ialdabaoth, the highest
archon, and also to Saturn.84 The "fourth" refers to the fourth
Person— the devil— who is opposed to the Trinity. Ialdabaoth
means "child of chaos"; hence when Goethe, borrowing from
alchemical terminology, calls the devil the "strange son of
chaos," the name is a very apt one.

326 Hermes is equipped with the golden wand.85 With it he
"drops sleep on the eyes of the dead and wakes up the sleepers."
The Naassenes referred this to Ephesians 5 : 14: "Awake, O
sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you
light." Just as the alchemists took the well-known allegory of
Christ, the lapis angularis or cornerstone, for their lapis philoso-
phorum, so the Naassenes took it as symbolizing their Protan-
thropos Adam, or more precisely, the "inner man," who is a
rock or stone, since he came from the Trlrp-q rov 'ASd/xavro^, "fallen
from Adamas the arch-man on high." 86 The alchemists said
their stone was "cut from the mountain without hands," 87 and
the Naassenes say the same thing of the inner man, who was
brought down "into the form of oblivion." 88 In Epiphanius the

83 Elenchos, V, 7, 30L (Cf. Legge trans., I, p. 128.)

84 Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, pp. 352f.

85 Here Hippolytus cites the text of Odyssey, XXIV, 2.

86 Elenchos, V, 7, 36 (Legge trans., I, pp. i20,f.).

87 Daniel 2 : 34: "Thus thou sawest, till a stone was cut out of a mountain with-
out hands" (DV). This was the stone that broke in pieces the clay and iron feet
of the statue.

88 Et's rb irXda/xa rijs XriOrjs, i.e., lethargia, the state of forgetf ulness and sleep
resembling that of the dead. The "inner man" is as if buried in the somatic man.
He is the "soul in fetters" or "in the prison of the body," as the alchemists say.
Lethe corresponds to the modern concept of the unconscious.

208

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

mountain is the Archanthropos Christ, from whom the stone or
inner man was cut. As Epiphanius interprets it, this means that
the inner man is begotten "without human seed," "a small stone
that becomes a great mountain." 89

The Archanthropos is the Logos, whom the souls follow
"twittering," as the bats follow Hermes in the nekyia. He leads
them to Oceanus and — in the immortal words of Homer — to
"the doors of Helios and the land of dreams." "He [Hermes] is
Oceanus, the begetter of gods and men, ever ebbing and flow-
ing, now forth, now back." Men are born from the ebb, and
gods from the flow. "It is this, they say, that stands written: 'I
have said, you are gods, and all of you the sons of the most
High.' " 90 Here the affinity or identity of God and man is ex-
plicit, in the Holy Scriptures no less than in the Naassene teach-
ings.

The Naassenes, as Hippolytus says,91 derived all things from
a triad, which consists firstly of the "blessed nature of the
blessed Man on high, Adamas," secondly of the mortal nature of
the lower man, and thirdly of the "kingless race begotten from
above," to which belong "Mariam the sought-for one, and
Jothor 92 the great wise one, and Sephora 93 the seer, and Moses
whose generation was not in Egypt." 94 Together these four form
a marriage quaternio 95 of the classic type:

HUSBAND WIFE

I I

SISTER BROTHER

89 Ancoratus, 40. Cf. Daniel 2 : 35: "But the stone that struck the statue became
a great mountain and filled the whole earth" (DV).

90 Elenchos, V, 7, 37 (Legge trans., I, p. 130). Cf. Psalm 82 (Vulg. 81) : 6, to which
reference is made in Luke 6 : 35 and John 10 : 34.

91V, 8, 2 (ibid., p. 131).

92 'Io0o>p = Jethro, the priest-king of Midian and the father-in-law of Moses.

93 Zipporah, the wife of Moses.

94 This is probably an allusion to the pneumatic nature of the "generation" pro-
duced by Moses, for, according to Elenchos, V, 7, 41, "Egypt is the body" (Legge
trans., I, p. 130).

95 The marriage quaternio is the archetype to which the cross-cousin marriage
corresponds on a primitive level. I have given a detailed account of it in "The
Psychology of the Transference," pars. 425ff.

209

AION

Their synonyms are:

MOTHER

—

FATHER

QUEEN

—

KING

THE UNKNOWN WOMAN

—

THE DISTANT LOVER

ANIMA

—

ANIMUS

329 Moses corresponds to the husband, Sephora to the wife;
Mariam (Miriam) is the sister of Moses; Jothor (Jethro) is the
archetype of the wise old man and corresponds to the father-
animus, if the quaternio is that of a woman. But the fact that
Jothor is called "the great wise one" suggests that the quaternio
is a man's. In the case of a woman the accent that falls here on
the wise man would fall on Mariam, who would then have the
significance of the Great Mother. At all events our quaternio
lacks the incestuous brother-sister relationship, otherwise very
common. Instead, Miriam has something of a mother signif-
icance for Moses (cf. Exodus 2 : 4fL). As a prophetess (Exodus
15 : 20L) she is a "magical" personality. When Moses took a
Moor to wife— the "Ethiopian woman"— this incensed Miriam
so much that she was smitten with leprosy and became "as white
as snow" (Numbers 12 : 10). Miriam is therefore not altogether
unsuited to play the role of the anima. The best-known anima-
figure in the Old Testament, the Shulamite, says: "I am black,
but comely" (Song of Songs 1 : 5). In the Chymical Wedding of
Christian Rosenkreutz, the royal bride is the concubine of the
Moorish king. Negroes, and especially Ethiopians, play a con-
siderable role in alchemy as synonyms of the caput corvi and
the nigredo.96 They appear in the Passion of St. Perpetua 97 as
representatives of the sinful pagan world.

33° The triad is characterized by various names that may be
onomatopoetic: Kaulakau, Saulasau, Zeesar.98 Kaulakau means
the higher Adam, Saulasau the lower, mortal man, and Zeesar
is named the "upwards-flowing Jordan." The Jordan was caused

96 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 484.

97 See the study by Marie-Louise von Franz.

98 These words occur in the Hebrew of Isaiah 28 : 10, where they describe what
"men with stammering lips and alien tongue" speak to the people. [The Hebrew
runs: "tsaw latsaw, tsaw latsaw, kaw lakaw, kaw lakaw, zeer sham, zeer sham."—
Editors.] AV: "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line
upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little."

210

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

by Jesus to flow up-stream; it is the rising flood and this, as
already mentioned, is the begetter of gods. "This, they say, is the
human hermaphrodite in all creatures, whom the ignorant call
'Geryon of the threefold body' [that is, d>s h yijs frkovra, 'flowing
from the earth']; but the Greeks name it the celestial horn of
the moon." The text defines the above-mentioned quaternio,
which is identical with Zeesar, the upwards-flowing Jordan, the
hermaphrodite, Geryon of the threefold body, and the horn
of the moon, as the cosmogonic Logos (John 1 : iff.), and the
"life that was in him" (John 1 : 4) as a "generation of perfect
men" (reXeioi avdp&TOL).99

This Logos or quaternity is "the cup from which the king,
drinking, draws his omens," 10° or the beaker of Anacreon. The
cup leads Hippolytus on to the wine miracle at Cana, which, he
says, "showed forth the kingdom of heaven"; for the kingdom
of heaven lies within us, like the wine in the cup. Further paral-
lels of the cup are the ithyphallic gods of Samothrace and the
Kyllenic Hermes, who signify the Original Man as well as the
spiritual man who is reborn. This last is "in every respect con-
substantial" with the Original Man symbolized by Hermes. For
this reason, says Hippolytus, Christ said that one must eat of his
flesh and drink of his blood, for he was conscious of the individ-
ual nature of each of his disciples, and also of the need of each
"to come to his own special nature." 101

Another synonym is Korybas, who was descended from the
crown of the head and from the unformed (axapaKTVp'^rov) brain,
like the Euphrates from Eden, and permeates all things. His
image exists — unrecognized — "in earthly form." He is the god
who dwells in the flood. I need not describe this symbol here, as
I have already discussed it at some length in one of my Para-
celsus studies.102 So far as Korybas is concerned, the parallel
between him and the Protanthropos is explained by the ancient
view that the corybants were the original men.103 The name
"Korybas" does not denote a particular personality, but rather
the anonymous member of a collectivity, such as the Curetes,

99 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 55of. [Cf. Legge trans., I, p. 131.]

100 cf. Genesis 44 : 5.

101 Elenchos, V, 8, 12 (Legge trans., I, p. 133).

102 "Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon," pars. i8iff.

103 Roscher, Lexikon, II, part 1, col. 1608, s.v. "Kuretes."

211

AION

Cabiri, Dactyls, etc. Etymologically, it has been brought into
connection with Kopv<f>ri (crown of the head), though this is not
certain.104 Korybas seems in our text to be the name of a single
personality — the Kyllenian Hermes, who appears here as syn-
onymous with the Cabiri of Samothrace. With reference to this
Hermes the text says: "Him the Thracians . . . call Kory-
bas." 105 I have suggested in an earlier publication 106 that this
unusual single personality may perhaps be a product of con-
tamination with Korybas, known to us from the Dionysus
legend, because he too seems to have been a phallic being, as we
learn from a scholium to Lucian's De dea Syria.101
333 From the centre of the "perfect man" flows the ocean (where,
as we have said, the god dwells). The "perfect" man is, as Jesus
says, the "true door," through which the "perfect" man must go
in order to be reborn. Here the problem of how to translate
"teleios" becomes crucial; for— we must ask— why should anyone
who is "perfect" need renewal through rebirth? 108 One can
only conclude that the perfect man was not so perfected that
no further improvement was possible. We encounter a similar
difficulty in Philippians 3:12, where Paul says: "Not that I
. . . am already perfect" (rereAd'co^ai). But three verses further on
he writes: "Let us then, as many as are perfect (re'Aeioi) be of this
mind." The Gnostic use of rcAeios obviously agrees with Paul's.
The word has only an approximate meaning and amounts to
much the same thing as Tn/o^ariKos, 'spiritual,' 109 which is not
connected with any conception of a definite degree of perfection
or spirituality. The word "perfect" gives the sense of the Greek
reAetos correctly only when it refers to God. But when it applies
to a man, who in addition is in need of rebirth, it can at most
mean "whole" or "complete," especially if, as our text says, the

104 Ibid., col. 1607. The descent from the brain may be an allusion to the ancient
idea that the sperm was conducted down from the head to the genitals, through
the spinal cord. [Cf. Onians, The Origins of European Thought, p. 234. — Editors.]

105 Elenchos, V, 8, 13 (Legge trans., I, p. 133).

106 "The Spirit Mercurius," par. 278.

107 Roscher, col. 1392, s.v. "Korybos," where the text is given in full.

108 The alchemists say very aptly: "Perfectum non perficitur" (that which is per-
fect is not perfected).

109 Elenchos, V, 8, 22, describes the irpev/xariKol as "perfect men endowed with
reason," from which it is clear that the possession of an anima rationalis is what
makes the "spiritual" man.

212

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

complete man cannot even be saved unless he passes through
this door.110

The father of the "perfectus" is the higher man or Protan-
thropos, who is "not clearly formed" and "without qualities."
Hippolytus goes on to say that he is called Papa (Attis) by the
Phrygians. He is a bringer of peace and quells "the war of the
elements" in the human body,111 a statement we meet again
word for word in medieval alchemy, where the filius philoso-
phorum "makes peace between enemies or the elements." 112
This "Papa" is also called vIkv? (cadaver), because he is buried in
the body like a mummy in a tomb. A similar idea is found in
Paracelsus; his treatise De vita longa opens with the words:
"Life, verily, is naught but a kind of embalmed mummy, which
preserves the mortal body from the mortal worms." 113 The
body lives only from the "Mumia," through which the "pere-
grinus microcosmus," the wandering microcosm (corresponding
to the macrocosm), rules the physical body.114 His synonyms are
the Adech, Archeus, Protothoma, Ides, Idechtrum, etc. He is the

110 Elenchos, V, 8, 21 (Legge trans., I, p. 134). Cramer (Bibl.-theol. Worterbuch
der Neutestamentlichen Grazitdt) gives as the meaning of re'Xcios 'complete, per-
fect, lacking nothing, having reached the destined goal.' Bauer {Griech.-deutsch.
Worterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments, col. 1344) has, with refer-
ence to age, 'mature, full-grown,' and with reference to the mysteries, 'initiated.'
Lightfoot (Notes on the Epistles of St Paul, p. 173) says: "T<f\eios is properly that
of which the parts are fully developed, as distinguished from 6\6k\tipos, that in
which none of the parts are wanting, 'full-grown/ as opposed to vfivios, 'child-
ish/ or ircudla, 'childhood.' " Teleios is the man who has received Nous: he has
gnosis (knowledge). Cf. Guignebert, "Quelques remarques sur la perfection
(reXecWis) et ses voies dans le mystere paulinien," p. 419. Weiss (The History of
Primitive Christianity, II, p. 576) declares that it is just the "consciousness of
imperfection and the will to progress that is the sign of perfection." He bases
this on Epictetus (Enchiridion, 51, if.), where it says that he who has resolved
to progress (TrpoKoirTeiv) is, by anticipation, already "perfect."
ill First mentioned at V, 8, 19. [Cf. Legge, I, p. 134.]

112 Her me t is Trismegisti Tractatus vere Aureus cum scholiis (1610), p. 44.

113 Published 1562 by Adam von Bodenstein. In Paracelsus Samtliche Werke, ed.
Sudhoff, III, p. 249. [Cf. "Paracelsus the Physician," par. 21.]

114 De origine Morborum invisibilium, beginning of Book IV, says of the Mumia:
"All the power of herbs and of trees is found in the Mumia; not only the power
of the plants grown of earth, but also of water, all the properties of metals, all the
qualities of marcasites, all the essence of precious stones. How should I count all
these things, and name them? They are all within man, no fewer and no less, as
strong and as powerful, in the Mumia." (Volumen Paramirum, pp. 291ft.)

213

AION

"Protoplast" (the first-created), and, as Ides, "the door whence
all created things have come." 115 (Cf. the "true door" above!)
The Mumia is born together with the body and sustains it,116
though not to the degree that the "supercelestial Mumia"
does.117 The latter would correspond to the higher Adam of the
Naassenes. Of the Ideus or Ides Paracelsus says that in it "there is
but One Man . . . and he is the Protoplast." 118

335 The Paracelsian Mumia therefore corresponds in every way
to the Original Man, who forms the microcosm in the mortal
man and, as such, shares all the powers of the macrocosm. Since
it is often a question of cabalistic influences in Paracelsus, it
may not be superfluous in this connection to recall the figure of
the cabalistic Metatron. In the Zohar the Messiah is described
as the "central column" (i.e., of the Sephiroth system), and of
this column it is said: "The column of the centre is Metatron,
whose name is like that of the Lord. It is created and constituted
to be his image and likeness, and it includes all gradations from
Above to Below and from Below to Above, and binds [them]
together in the centre." 119

336 The dead man, Hippolytus continues, will rise again by
passing through the "door of heaven." Jacob saw the gate of
heaven on his way to Mesopotamia, "but they say Mesopotamia
is the stream of the great ocean that flows from the midst of the
perfect man." This is the gate of heaven of which Jacob said:
"How terrible is this place! This is no other but the house of
God, and the gate of heaven." 12° The stream that flows out of
the Original Man (the gate of heaven) is interpreted here as the
flood-tide of Oceanus, which, as we have seen, generates the
gods. The passage quoted by Hippolytus probably refers to
John 7 : 38 or to an apocryphal source common to both. The
passage in John — "He who believes in me, as the scripture has
said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" — refers to
a nonbiblical source, which, however, seemed scriptural to the
author. Whoever drinks of this water, in him it shall be a foun-

115 Fragmentarische Ausarbeitungen zur Anatomie (Sudhoff, III, p. 462).

116 The Mumia is, accordingly, an alexipharmic. (De mumia libellus; ibid., p. 375.)

117 De vita longa, Lib. IV, cap. VII (ibid., p. 284).

118 "Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon," par. 168.

119 Zohar, cited in Schoettgen, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, II, p. 16.

120 Gen. 28: 17 (DV).

214

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

tain of water springing up into eternal life, says Origen.121 This
water is the "higher" water, the aqua doctrinae, the rivers from
the belly of Christ, and the divine life as contrasted with the
"lower" water, the aqua abyssi, where the darknesses are, and
where dwell the Prince of this world and the deceiving dragon
and his angels.122 The river of water is the "Saviour" himself.123
Christ is the river that pours into the world through the four
gospels,124 like the rivers of Paradise. I have purposely cited the
ecclesiastical allegories in greater detail here, so that the reader
can see how saturated Gnostic symbolism is in the language of
the Church, and how, on the other hand, particularly in Origen,
the liveliness of his amplifications and interpretations has much
in common with Gnostic views. Thus, to him as to many of his
contemporaries and successors, the idea of the cosmic corre-
spondence of the "spiritual inner man" was something quite
familiar: in his first Homily on Genesis he says that God first
created heaven, the whole spiritual substance, and that the
counterpart of this is "our mind, which is itself a spirit, that is,
it is our spiritual inner man which sees and knows God." 125

These examples of Christian parallels to the partly pagan
views of the Gnostics may suffice to give the reader a picture of
the mentality of the first two centuries of our era, and to show
how closely the religious teachings of that age were connected
with psychic facts.

121 in Genesim horn. XI, 3 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12, col. 224): "And that ye may see
the well of vision, and take from it the living water, which shall be in you a
fountain of water springing up unto eternal life."

122 ibid., I, 2 (col. 148).

123 in Numeros horn. XVII, 4 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12, cols. 7oyf.): "For these para-
dises upon the waters are like and akin to that paradise in which is the tree of
life. And the waters we may take to be either the writings of the apostles and
evangelists, or the aid given by the angels and celestial powers to such souls; for
by these they are watered and inundated, and nourished unto all knowledge and
understanding of heavenly things; although our Saviour also is the river which
maketh glad the city of God; and the Holy Spirit not only is himself that river,
but out of those to whom he is given, rivers proceed from their belly."

124 See the valuable compilation of patristic allegories in Rahner, "Flumina de
ventre Christi," pp. 269ft. The above reference is on p. 370 and comes from
Hippolytus' Commentary on Daniel, I, 17 (Werke, I, pp. 28f.).

125 In Genesim horn. I, 2 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12, col. 147).

215

AION

338 Now let us come back to the symbols listed by Hippolytus.
The Original Man in his latent state— so we could interpret the
term axapaKrqpi<TT6s— is named Aipolos, "not because he feeds he-
goats and she-goats," but because he is ocittoAo?, the Pole that
turns the cosmos round.126 This recalls the parallel ideas of the
alchemists, previously mentioned, about Mercurius, who is
found at the North Pole. Similarly the Naassenes named Aipolos
—in the language of the Odyssey— Pro teus. Hippolytus quotes
Homer as follows: "This place is frequented by the Old Man of
the Sea, immortal Proteus the Egyptian . . . who always tells
the truth . . ." 127 Homer then continues: ". . . who owes
allegiance to Poseidon and knows the sea in all its depths." 128
Proteus is evidently a personification of the unconscious: 129 it
is difficult to "catch this mysterious old being ... he might see
me first, or know I am there and keep away." One must seize
him quickly and hold him fast, in order to force him to speak.
Though he lives in the sea, he comes to the lonely shore at the
sacred noon-tide hour, like an amphibian, and lies down to
sleep among his seals. These, it must be remembered, are warm-
blooded—that is to say, they can be thought of as contents of the
unconscious that are capable of becoming conscious, and at cer-
tain times they appear spontaneously in the light and airy world
of consciousness. From Proteus the wandering hero learns how
he may make his way homewards "over the fish-giving sea," and
thus the Old Man proves to be a psychopomp.130 Ov TwrpacrKeTai,
Hippolytus says of him, which can best be translated by the
French colloquialism "il ne se laisse pas rouler." "But," the text
goes on, "he spins round himself and changes his shape." He
behaves, therefore, like a revolving image that cannot be
grasped. What he says is vrjfiepTrjs, 'in sooth,' infallible; he is a

126 Elenchos, V, 8, 34 (Legge, I, p. 137). This is a play on the words alirSXos (from
alyoirSXos), 'goat-herd,' and &enr6\os (from del voXeiv, 'ever turning'). Hence
voXos = the earth's axis, the Pole.

127 Odyssey, trans, by Rouse, p. 65. 128 Ibid., trans, by Rieu, p. 74.

129 He has something of the character of the "trickster" (cf. n. 62, supra).

130 Proteus has much in common with Hermes: above all, the gift of second sight
and the power of shape-shifting. In Faust (Part II, Act 5) he tells the Homuncu-
lus how and where to begin his labours.

2)6

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

"soothsayer." So it is not for nothing that the Naassenes say that
"knowledge of the complete man is deep indeed and hard to
comprehend."
339 Subsequently, Proteus is likened to the green ear of corn in
the Eleusinian mysteries. To him is addressed the cry of the
celebrants: "The Mistress has borne the divine boy, Brimo has
borne Brimos!" A "lower" correspondence to the high Eleu-
sinian initiations, says Hippolytus, is the dark path of Per-
sephone, who was abducted by the god of the underworld; it
leads "to the grove of adored Aphrodite, who rouses the sickness
of love." Men should keep to this lower path in order to be
initiated "into the great and heavenly" mysteries.131 For this
mystery is "the gate of heaven" and the "house of God," where
alone the good God dwells, who is destined only for the spiritual
men. They should put off their garments and all become w^ioi,
'bridegrooms,' "robbed of their virility by the virgin spirit." 132
This is an allusion to Revelation 14:4:". . . for they are vir-
gins. These . . . follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." 133

131 When I visited the ancient pagoda at Turukalukundram, southern India, a
local pundit explained to me that the old temples were purposely covered on the
outside, from top to bottom, with obscene sculptures, in order to remind ordi-
nary people of their sexuality. The spirit, he said, was a great danger, because
Yama, the god of death, would instantly carry off these people (the "imperfecti")
if they trod the spiritual path directly, without preparation. The erotic sculp-
tures were meant to remind them of their dharma (law), which bids them fulfil
their ordinary lives. Only when they have fulfilled their dharma can they tread
the spiritual path. The obscenities were intended to arouse the erotic curiosity of
visitors to the temples, so that they should not forget their dharma; otherwise
they would not fulfil it. Only the man who was qualified by his karma (the fate
earned through works in previous existences), and who was destined for the life
of the spirit, could ignore this injunction with impunity, for to him these obsceni-
ties mean nothing. That was also why the two seductresses stood at the entrance
of the temple, luring the people to fulfil their dharma, because only in this way
could the ordinary man attain to higher spiritual development. And since the
temple represented the whole world, all human activities were portrayed in it;
and because most people are always thinking of sex anyway, the great majority
of the temple sculptures were of an erotic nature. For this reason too, he said,
the lingam (phallus) stands in the sacred cavity of the adyton (Holy of Holies), in
the garbha griha (house of the womb). This pundit was a Tantrist (scholastic;
tantra = 'book').

132 Their prototypes are the emasculated Attis and the priests of Eleusis, who,
before celebrating the hieros gamos, were made impotent with a draught of
hemlock.

133 Cf. Matt. 5 : 8: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

217

AION

340 Among the objective symbols of the self I have already men-
tioned the Naassene conception of the d^epi0"™5 any^, the indi-
visible point. This conception fully accords with that of the
"Monad" and "Son of Man" in Monoimos. Hippolytus says:

Monoimos . . . thinks that there is some such Man as Oceanus, of
whom the poet speaks somewhat as follows: Oceanus, the origin
of gods and of men.134 Putting this into other words, he says that
the Man is All, the source of the universe, unbegotten, incor-
ruptible, everlasting; and that there is a Son of the aforesaid Man,
who is begotten and capable of suffering, and whose birth is outside
time, neither willed nor predetermined . . . This Man is a single
Monad, uncompounded [and] indivisible, [yet] compounded [and]
divisible; loving and at peace with all things [yet] warring with all
things and at war with itself in all things; unlike and like [itself],
as it were a musical harmony containing all things . . . showing
forth all things and giving birth to all things. It is its own mother,
its own father, the two immortal names. The emblem of the per-
fect Man, says Monoimos, is the jot or tittle.135 This one tittle is
the uncompounded, simple, unmixed Monad, having its composi-
tion from nothing whatsoever, yet composed of many forms, of
many parts. That single, indivisible jot is the many-faced, thousand-
eyed and thousand-named, the jot of the iota. This is the emblem
of that perfect and indivisible Man. . . . The Son of the Man is
the one iota, the one jot flowing from on high, full and filling all
things, containing in himself everything that is in the Man, the
Father of the Son of Man.136

134 A condensation of Iliad, XIV, 200L and 246: "I am going to the ends of the
fruitful earth to visit Ocean, the forbear of the gods, and Mother Tethys . . .
even Ocean Stream himself, who is the forbear of them all." (Rieu trans., pp. 262I)

135 The iota (ttjv /xlav Kepaiav), the smallest Greek character, corresponding to our
"dot" (which did not exist in Greek). Cf. Luke 16 : 17: "And it is easier for
heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fall." Also Matt. 5:18.
This may well be the origin of the iota symbolism, as Irenaeus (Adv. haer., I,
3, 2) suggests.

136 Elenchos, VIII, 12, 5ft. (Legge, pp. io7ff.). All this is a Gnostic paraphrase of
John 1 and at the same time a meaningful exposition of the psychological self.
The relationship of the t to the self is the same as that of the Hebrew letter
Yod 0) to the lapis in the cabala. The Original Man, Adam, signifies the small
hook at the top of the letter Yod. (Shaare Kedusha, III, 1.)

2l8

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

341 This paradoxical idea of the Monad in Monoi'mos describes
the psychological nature of the self as conceived by a thinker of
the second century under the influence of the Christian message.

342 A parallel conception is to be found in Plotinus, who lived
a little later (c. 205-70). He says in the Enneads: "Self-knowledge
reveals the fact that the soul's natural movement is not in a
straight line, unless indeed it have undergone some deviation.
On the contrary, it circles around something interior, around a
centre. Now the centre is that from which proceeds the circle,
that is, the soul. The soul will therefore move around the centre,
that is, around the principle from which she proceeds; and,
trending towards it, she will attach herself to it, as indeed all
souls should do. The souls of the divinities ever direct themselves
towards it, and that is the secret of their divinity; for divinity
consists in being attached to the centre. . . . Anyone who with-
draws from it is a man who has remained un-unified, or who is
a brute." 137

343 Here the point is the centre of a circle that is created, so to
speak, by the circumambulation of the soul. But this point is the
"centre of all things," a God-image. This is an idea that still
underlies the mandala-symbols in modern dreams.138

344 Of equal significance is the idea, also common among the
Gnostics, of the ainvB^p or spark.139 It corresponds to the scintilla
vitae, the "little spark of the soul" in Meister Eckhart,140 which
we meet with rather early in the teachings of Saturninus.141
Similarly Heraclitus, "the physicist," is said to have conceived
the soul as a "spark of stellar essence." 142 Hippolytus says that
in the doctrine of the Sethians the darkness held "the bright-

137 Ennead, VI, 9, 8 (Guthrie trans., p. 163, slightly mod.).

138 See "A Study in the Process of Individuation" and "Concerning Mandala
Symbolism."

139 Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, p. 321, says: "[The Gnostics believed]
that human beings, or at any rate some human beings, carry within them from
the beginning a higher element [the spinther] deriving from the world of light,
which enables them to rise above the world of the Seven into the upper world of
light, where dwell the unknown Father and the heavenly Mother."

140 Meerpohl, "Meister Eckharts Lehre vom Seelenfunklein."

141 Irenaeus, Adv. haer., I., 24. The pneumatikoi contain a small part of the
Pleroma (II, 29). Cf. the doctrine of Satorneilos in Hippolytus, Elenchos, VII, a8,
3 (Legge trans., II, pp. 8of.).

142 Macrobius, Commentarium in Somnium Scipionis, XIV, 19.

219

AION

ness and the spark of light in thrall," 143 and that this "very small
spark" was finely mingled in the dark waters 144 below.145 Simon
Magus 146 likewise teaches that in semen and milk there is a very
small spark which "increases and becomes a power boundless
and immutable." 147
345 The symbol of the point is found also in alchemy, where it
stands for the arcane substance; in Michael Maier148 it signifies
"the purity or homogeneity of the essence." It is the "punctum
solis" 149 in the egg-yolk, which grows into a chick. In Khunrath
it represents Sapientia in the form of the "salt-point"; 15° in
Maier it symbolizes gold.151 To the scholiast of the "Tractatus
aureus" it is the midpoint, the "circulus exiguus" and "media-
tor" which reconciles the hostile elements and "by persistent
rotation changes the angular form of the square into a circular
one like itself." 152 For Dorn the "punctum vix intelligibile" is

143 Elenchos, V, 19, 7: "Iva %xy rbv amv6r\pa. SovXevovra.

144 This idea reappears in alchemy in numerous variations. Cf. Michael Maier,
Symbola aureae mensae, p. 380, and Scrutinium chymicum, Emblema XXXI:
"The King swimming in the sea, and crying with a loud voice: Whosoever shall
bring me out, shall have a great reward." Also Aurora Consurgens (ed. von Franz),
p. 57: "For this cause have I laboured night by night with crying, my jaws be-
come hoarse; who is the man that liveth, knowing and understanding, deliver-
ing my soul from the hand of hell?"

145 Elenchos, V, 21, 1: Tov amvdripa rbv i\ax<-<rrov kv tois ckotcivois vSacri Karat
Karafxe/xlxdaL Xe7TT(5s-

146 Elenchos, VI, 17, 7. Cf. "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass," par. 359.

147 Cf. the vision reported by Wickes, The Inner World of Man, p. 245. It is a
typical piece of individuation symbolism: "Then I saw that on the shaft there
hung a human figure that held within itself all the loneliness of the world and
of the spaces. Alone, and hoping for nothing, the One hung and gazed down
into the void. For long the One gazed, drawing all solitude unto itself. Then
deep in the fathomless dark was born an infinitesimal spark. Slowly it rose from
the bottomless depth, and as it rose it grew until it became a star. And the star
hung in space just opposite the figure, and the white light streamed upon the
Lonely One." Conversely, it is related of Zoroaster that he drew down sparks
from a star, which scorched him. (Bousset, p. 146.)

148 Maier, De circulo physico quadrato (1616), p. 27.

149 Or punctus solis. "In the egg therefore are four things: earth, water, air, and
fire; but the 'punctum solis' is apart from these four, in the midst of the yolk
(which) is the chick." (Turba, Sermo IV.) Ruska (Turba philosophorum, p. 51)
puts "saliens" instead of "solis" ("springing point" instead of "sun-point"), in the
belief that all the copyists repeated the same error. I am not so sure of this.

150 Von hylealischen Chaos, p. 194. 151 De circulo quadrato, p. 27.
152 Theatr. chem., IV, p. 691.

220

GNOSTIC SYMBOLS OF THE SELF

the starting point of creation.153 Similarly John Dee says that all
things originated from the point and the monad.154 Indeed, God
himself is simultaneously both the centre and the circumference.
In Mylius the point is called the bird of Hermes.155 In the
"Novum lumen" it is spirit and fire, the life of the arcane sub-
stance, similar to the spark.158 This conception of the point is
more or less the same as that of the Gnostics.
346 From these citations we can see how Christ was assimilated
to symbols that also meant the kingdom of God, for instance
the grain of mustard-seed, the hidden treasure, and the pearl of
great price. He and his kingdom have the same meaning. Objec-
tions have always been made to this dissolution of Christ's per-
sonality, but what has not been realized is that it represents at
the same time an assimilation and integration of Christ into the
human psyche.157 The result is seen in the growth of the human
personality and in the development of consciousness. These
specific attainments are now gravely threatened in our anti-
christian age, not only by the sociopolitical delusional systems,
but above all by the rationalistic hybris which is tearing our
consciousness from its transcendent roots and holding before
it immanent goals.

153 "Physica genesis," Theatr. chem., I, p. 382.

154 Monas hieroglyphica (first edn., 1564). Also in Theatr. chem. (1602), II, p. 218.

155 Phil, ref., p. 131. 156 Mus. herm., p. 559.

157 Here I would like to cite a theological opinion: "Jesus is a synthesis and a
growth, and the resultant form is one which tells of a hundred forces which went
to its making. But the interesting thing is that the process did not end with the
closing of the canon. Jesus is still in the making." Roberts, "Jesus or Christ?—
A Reply," p. 124.

221

XIV

THE STRUCTURE AND
DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

347 The examples given in the previous chapter should be suf-
ficient to describe the progressive assimilation and amplifica-
tion of the archetype that underlies ego-consciousness. Rather
than add to their number unnecessarily, I will try to summarize
them so that an over-all picture results. From various hints
dropped by Hippolytus, it is clear beyond a doubt that many of
the Gnostics were nothing other than psychologists. Thus he
reports them as saying that "the soul is very hard to find and to
comprehend," x and that knowledge of the whole man is just as
difficult. "For knowledge of man is the beginning of wholeness
(TeAeiWis), but knowledge of God is perfect wholeness {atrqprurfiivq
TeAetWts)." Clement of Alexandria says in the Paedagogus (III,
1): "Therefore, as it seems, it is the greatest of all disciplines to
know oneself; for when a man knows himself, he knows God."
And Monoi'mos, in his letter to Theophrastus, writes: "Seek him
from out thyself, and learn who it is that taketh possession of
everything in thee, saying: my god, my spirit, my understanding,
my soul, my body; and learn whence is sorrow and joy, and love
and hate, and waking though one would not, and sleeping
though one would not, and getting angry though one would not,
and falling in love though one would not. And if thou shouldst
closely investigate these things, thou wilt find Him in thyself,
the One and the Many, like to that little point [fcepata], for it is
in thee that he hath his origin and his deliverance." 2

348 One cannot help being reminded, in reading this text, of the
Indian idea of the Self as brahman and atman, for instance in

1 Elenchos, V, 7, 8 (Legge trans., I, p. 123).

2 Elenchos, VIII, 15, iff. Cf. Legge trans., II, p. 10.

222

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

the Kena Upanishad: "By whom willed and directed does the
mind fly forth? By whom commanded does the first breath move?
Who sends forth the speech we utter here? What god is it that
stirs the eye and ear? The hearing of the ear, the thinking of the
mind, the speaking of the speech . . . That which speech can-
not express, by which speech is expressed . . . which the mind
cannot think, by which the mind thinks, know that as Brah-
man." 3

349 Yajnyavalkya defines it in indirect form in the Brihadaran-
yaka Upanishad: "He who dwells in all beings, yet is apart from
all beings, whom no beings know, whose body is all beings, who
controls all beings from within, he is your Self, the inner con-
troller, the immortal. . . . There is no other seer but he, no
other hearer but he, no other perceiver but he, no other knower
but he. He is your Self, the inner controller, the immortal. All
else is of sorrow.4

35° In Monoi'mos, who was called "the Arab," Indian influences
are not impossible. His statement is significant because it shows
that even in the second century5 the ego was considered the
exponent of an all-embracing totality, the self— a thought that
by no means all psychologists are familiar with even today.
These insights, in the Near East as in India, are the product of
intense introspective observation that can only be psychological.
Gnosis is undoubtedly a psychological knowledge whose con-
tents derive from the unconscious. It reached its insights by
concentrating on the "subjective factor," 6 which consists empiri-
cally in the demonstrable influence that the collective uncon-
scious exerts on the conscious mind. This would explain the
astonishing parallelism between Gnostic symbolism and the
findings of the psychology of the unconscious.

35i I would like to illustrate this parallelism by summarizing the
symbols previously discussed. For this purpose we must first of
all review the facts that led psychologists to conjecture an arche-
type of wholeness, i.e., the self. These are in the first place
dreams and visions; in the second place, products of active
imagination in which symbols of wholeness appear. The most

3 Based on Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upanishads, pp. 58if.

4 Ibid., pp. 228f.

5 Hippolytus lived c. a.d. 230. Monoimos must therefore antedate him.

6 Psychological Types (1923 edn., pp. 471ft".).

223

AION

important of these are geometrical structures containing ele-
ments of the circle and quaternity; 7 namely, circular and spheri-
cal forms on the one hand, which can be represented either
purely geometrically or as objects; and, on the other hand,
quadratic figures divided into four or in the form of a cross.
They can also be four objects or persons related to one another
in meaning or by the way they are arranged. Eight, as a multiple
of four, has the same significance. A special variant of the qua-
ternity motif is the dilemma of 3 -f- i- Twelve (3 X 4) seems to
belong here as a solution of the dilemma and as a symbol of
wholeness (zodiac, year). Three can be regarded as a relative
totality, since it usually represents either a spiritual totality that
is a product of thought, like the Trinity,8 or else an instinctual,
chthonic one, like the triadic nature of the gods of the under-
world—the "lower triad." Psychologically, however, three— if the
context indicates that it refers to the self— should be understood
as a defective quaternity or as a stepping-stone towards it.9
Empirically, a triad has a trinity opposed to it as its comple-
ment. The complement of the quaternity is unity.10
352 From the circle and quaternity motif is derived the symbol
of the geometrically formed crystal and the wonder-working
stone. From here analogy formation leads on to the city,11 castle,
church,12 house,13 and vessel.14 Another variant is the wheel
(rota). The former motif emphasizes the ego's containment in
the greater dimension of the self; the latter emphasizes the rota-
tion which also appears as a ritual circumambulation. Psycho-
logically, it denotes concentration on and preoccupation with
a centre, conceived as the centre of a circle and thus formulated
as a point. This leads easily enough to a relationship to the
heavenly Pole and the starry bowl of heaven rotating round it.
A parallel is the horoscope as the "wheel of birth."

7 The circle has the character of wholeness because of its "perfect" form; the
quaternity, because four is the minimum number of parts into which the circle
may naturally be divided.

8 Cf. "A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity," pars. i82ff.

9 Cf. "Spirit in Fairytales" pars. 425^, 436ft., and "Trinity," pars. 243ff.

10 Five corresponds to the indistinguishability of quaternity and unity.

11 [Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 138L, fig. 31.]

12 Church built of living stones in the Shepherd of Hennas. [Psychological Types,
ch. V, 4a.]

13 Golden Flower (1962 edn.), pp. 22, 36. 14 Psychology and Alchemy, par. 338.

224

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

The image of the city, house, and vessel brings us to their
content — the inhabitant of the city or house, and the water con-
tained in the vessel. The inhabitant, in his turn, has a relation-
ship to the quaternity, and to the fifth as the unity of the four.
The water appears in modern dreams and visions as a blue ex-
panse reflecting the sky, as a lake, as four rivers (e.g., Switzer-
land as the heart of Europe with the Rhine, Ticino, Rhone, and
Inn, or the Garden of Eden with the Gihon, Pison, Hiddekel,
and Euphrates), as healing water and consecrated water, etc.
Sometimes the water is associated with fire, or even combined
with it as fire-water (wine, alcohol).

The inhabitant of the quadratic space leads to the human
figure. Apart from the geometrical and arithmetical symbols,
this is the commonest symbol of the self. It is either a god or a
godlike human being, a prince, a priest, a great man, an his-
torical personality, a dearly loved father, an admired example,
the successful elder brother— in short, a figure that transcends
the ego personality of the dreamer. There are corresponding
feminine figures in a woman's psychology.

Just as the circle is contrasted with the square, so the qua-
ternity is contrasted with the 3 -f- 1 motif, and the positive,
beautiful, good, admirable, and lovable human figure with a
daemonic, misbegotten creature who is negative, ugly, evil,
despicable and an object of fear. Like all archetypes, the self has
a paradoxical, antinomial character. It is male and female, old
man and child, powerful and helpless, large and small. The self
is a true "complexio oppositorum," 15 though this does not
mean that it is anything like as contradictory in itself. It is
quite possible that the seeming paradox is nothing but a reflec-
tion of the enantiodromian changes of the conscious attitude
which can have a favourable or an unfavourable effect on the
whole. The same is true of the unconscious in general, for its
frightening figures may be called forth by the fear which the
conscious mind has of the unconscious. The importance of con-
sciousness should not be underrated; hence it is advisable to re-
late the contradictory manifestations of the unconscious causally
to the conscious attitude, at least in some degree. But conscious-
ness should not be overrated either, for experience provides too

15 A definition of God in Nicholas of Cusa. Cf. "The Psychology of the Trans-
ference," par. 537.

225

AION

many incontrovertible proofs of the autonomy of unconscious
compensatory processes for us to seek the origin of these an-
tinomies only in the conscious mind. Between the conscious and
the unconscious there is a kind of "uncertainty relationship,"
because the observer is inseparable from the observed and al-
ways disturbs it by the act of observation. In other words, exact
observation of the unconscious prejudices observation of the
conscious and vice versa.

356 Thus the self can appear in all shapes from the highest to the
lowest, inasmuch as these transcend the scope of the ego person-
ality in the manner of a daimonion. It goes without saying that
the self also has its theriomorphic symbolism. The commonest
of these images in modern dreams are, in my experience, the
elephant, horse, bull, bear, white and black birds, fishes, and
snakes. Occasionally one comes across tortoises, snails, spiders,
and beetles. The principal plant symbols are the flower and the
tree. Of the inorganic products, the commonest are the moun-
tain and lake.

357 Where there is an undervaluation of sexuality the self is
symbolized as a phallus. Undervaluation can consist in an
ordinary repression or in overt devaluation. In certain differ-
entiated persons a purely biological interpretation and evalua-
tion of sexuality can also have this effect. Any such conception
overlooks the spiritual and "mystical" implications of the sexual
instinct.16 These have existed from time immemorial as psychic
facts, but are devalued and repressed on rationalistic and
philosophical grounds. In all such cases one can expect an un-
conscious phallicism by way of compensation. A good example
of this is the mainly sexualistic approach to the psyche that is
to be found in Freud.

358 Coming now to the Gnostic symbols of the self, we find that
the Naassenes of Hippolytus lay most emphasis on the human
images; of the geometrical and arithmetical symbols the most
important are the quaternity, the ogdoad, the trinity, and unity.
Here we shall give our attention mainly to the totality symbol
of the quaternity, and above all to the symbol mentioned in

16 Cf. Hurwitz, "Archetypische Motive in der chassidischen Mystik," ch. VI.

226

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

section 6 of the last chapter, which I would like to call, for short,
the Moses Quaternio. We shall then consider the second Naas-
sene Quaternio, the one with the four rivers of Paradise, which
I shall call the Paradise Quaternio. Though differently consti-
tuted, the two quaternios express roughly the same idea, and in
what follows I shall try not only to relate them to one another
psychologically, but also to bring out their connection with
later (alchemical) quaternary structures. In the course of these
investigations, we shall see how far the two quaternios are char-
acteristic of the Gnostic age, and how far they can be correlated
with the archetypal history of the mind in the Christian aeon.
359 The quaternity in the Moses Quaternio 17 is evidently con-
structed according to the following schema:

The Higher Adam

Miriam, Mother-
Sister-Anima

Jethro, physical
and spiritual father

Zipporah, wife of Moses
and daughter of Jethro

Moms

The Lower Adam

The Moses Quaternio

s6° The "lower Adam" corresponds to the ordinary mortal man,
Moses to the culture-hero and lawgiver, and thus, on a person-
alistic level, to the "father"; Zipporah, as the daughter of a king

17 Elenchos, V, 8, 2.

227

AION

and priest, to the "higher mother." For the ordinary man, these
two represent the "royal pair," 18 which for Moses corresponds
on the one hand to his "higher man," and on the other hand to
his anima, Miriam. The "higher" man is synonymous with the
"spiritual, inner" man, who is represented in the quaternio by
Jethro. Such is the meaning of the quaternio when seen from
the standpoint of Moses. But since Moses is related to Jethro as
the lower Adam, or ordinary man, is to Moses, the quaternio
cannot be understood merely as the structure of Moses' per-
sonality, but must be looked at from the standpoint of the lower
Adam as well. We then get the following quaternio:

MOSES ZIPPORAH

as culture-hero as higher mother

THE LOWER ADAM EVE

as ordinary man as ordinary woman

361 From this we can see that the Naassene quaternio is in a
sense unsymmetrical, since it leads to a senarius (hexad) with an
exclusively upward tendency: Jethro and Miriam have to be
added to the above four as a kind of third storey, as the higher
counterparts of Moses and Zipporah. We thus get a gradual pro-
gression, or series of steps leading from the lower to the higher
Adam. This psychology evidently underlies the elaborate lists of
Valentinian syzygies. The lower Adam or somatic man conse-
quently appears as the lowest stage of all, from which there can
be only an ascent. But, as we have seen, the four persons in the
Naassene quaternio are chosen so skilfully that it leaves room
not only for the incest motif [Jethro-Miriam], which is never
lacking in the marriage quaternio, but also for the extension of
the ordinary man's psychic structure downwards, towards the
sub-human, the dark and evil side represented by the shadow.
That is to say, Moses marries the "Ethiopian woman," and
Miriam, the prophetess and mother-sister, becomes "leprous,"
which is clear proof that her relation to Moses has taken a nega-
tive turn. This is further confirmed by the fact that Miriam
"spoke against" Moses and even stirred up his brother Aaron
against him. Accordingly, we get the following senarius:

18 Cf. "The Psychology of the Transference," pars. 4ioff.

2*8

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

THE LOWER ADAM EVE

MOSES ETHIOPIAN WOMAN

jethro, the heathen priest miriam, the "white" leper

Though nothing is said against Jethro, "the great wise one,"
in the Bible story, yet as a Midianite priest he did not serve
Yahweh and did not belong to the chosen people, but departs
from them to his own country.19 He seems also to have borne
the name Reguel ("friend of God") and to have helped Moses
with his superior wisdom. He is, accordingly, a numinous per-
sonality, the embodiment of an archetype, obviously that of the
"wise old man" who personifies the spirit in myth and folklore.
The spirit, as I have shown elsewhere,20 has a dichotomous
nature. Just as Moses in this case represents his own shadow by
taking to wife the black daughter of the earth, so Jethro, in his
capacity as heathen priest and stranger, has to be included in the
quaternio as the "lower" aspect of himself, with a magical and
nefarious significance (though this is not vouched for in the
text).21

As I have already explained, the Moses Quaternio is an indi-
vidual variant of the common marriage quaternio found in folk-
lore.22 It could therefore be designated just as well with other
mythical names. The basic schema of the cross-cousin marriage:

HUSBAND COUSIN AS WIFE

I I

husband's sister wife's brother

has numerous variants; for instance the sister can be replaced
by the mother or the wife's brother by a fatherlike figure. But
the incest motif remains a characteristic feature. Since the
schema is a primary one characterizing the psychology of love
relationships and also of the transference, it will, like all char-
acterological schemata, obviously manifest itself in a "favour-
able" and an "unfavourable" form, for the relationships in ques-
tion also exhibit the same ambivalence: everything a man does
has a positive and a negative aspect.

19 Exodus 18 : 27.

20 "Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales," pars. 400ft.

21 Since the whole Shadow Quaternio is a symmetrical construction, the "good
Wise Man" must here be contrasted with a correspondingly dark, chthonic figure.

22 Ci. "Psychology of the Transference," pars. 425ft.

229

AION

364 The reader, therefore, should not let himself be put off by
the somewhat scurrilous Gnostic nomenclature. The names are
accidental, whereas the schema itself is universally valid. The
same is true of the "Shadow Quaternio," for which I have kept
the same names because the biography of Moses offers certain
features that are well suited to illustrate the shadow.

365 The lower senarius reaches its nadir not in the "lower
Adam" but in his dark, theriomorphic prefiguration— the ser-
pent who was created before man, or the Gnostic Naas. Accord-
ingly we have the structures shown on the facing page.

366 This schema is no idle parlour game, because the texts make
it abundantly clear that the Gnostics were quite familiar with
the dark aspect of their metaphysical figures, so much so that
they caused the greatest offence on that account. (One has only
to think of the identification of the good God with Priapus,23 or
of the Anthropos with the ithyphallic Hermes.) It was, more-
over, the Gnostics— e.g., Basilides— who exhaustively discussed
the problem of evil {vbOev rb kokSv; — 'whence comes evil?'). The
serpentine form of the Nous and the Agathodaimon does not
mean that the serpent has only a good aspect. Just as the
Apophis-serpent was the traditional enemy of the Egyptian sun-
god, so the devil, "that ancient serpent,"24 is the enemy of
Christ, the "novus Sol." The good, perfect, spiritual God was
opposed by an imperfect, vain, ignorant, and incompetent
demiurge. There were archontic Powers that gave to mankind
a corrupt "chirographum" (handwriting) from which Christ
had to redeem them.25

367 With the dawn of the second millennium the accent shifted

23 In the gnosis of Justin. See Hippolytus, Elenchos, V, 26, 32 (Legge trans., I,
p. 178): 6 de ayados kan Uptavos (But the Good One is Priapus).
24&ev. 12 : 9.

25 Coloss. 2 : 14: "Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us,
which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it
to the cross" (DV). The handwriting is imprinted on the body. This view is con-
firmed by Orosius ("Ad Aurelium Augustum commonitorium de errore Priscil-
lianistarum et Origenistarum," p. 153), who says that in the opinion of Pris-
cillian the soul, on descending through the spheres into birth, was caught by the
powers of evil, and at the behest of the victor ("victoris principis") was cast into
separate bodies, upon which a "handwriting" was written. The parts of the soul
receive a divine chirographum, but the parts of the body are imprinted with
the signs of the zodiac icaeli signa).

230

Anthtopot (the higher Adam)

The higher Jethro

The higher Moses

The positive Miriam

The wise Zippor/sh

Man (the lower Adam)

A. The Anthropos Quaternio

The lower Jethro

The negative Miriam

The Ethiopian

Serpent

B. The Shadow Quaternio
231

AION

more and more towards the dark side. The demiurge became
the devil who had created the world, and, a little later, alchemy
began to develop its conception of Mercurius as the partly ma-
terial, partly immaterial spirit that penetrates and sustains all
things, from stones and metals to the highest living organisms.
In the form of a snake he dwells inside the earth, has a body,
soul, and spirit, was believed to have a human shape as the
homunculus or homo altus, and was regarded as the chthonic
God.26 From this we can see clearly that the serpent was either
a forerunner of man or a distant copy of the Anthropos, and
how justified is the equation Naas = Nous = Logos r= Christ
= Higher Adam. The medieval extension of this equation to-
wards the dark side had, as I have said, already been prepared
by Gnostic phallicism. This appears as early as the fifteenth cen-
tury in the alchemical Codex Ashburnham 1166,27 and in the
sixteenth century Mercurius was identified with Hermes Kyl-
lenios.28

It is significant that Gnostic philosophy found its continua-
tion in alchemy.29 "Mater Alchimia" is one of the mothers of
modern science, and modern science has given us an unparal-
leled knowledge of the "dark" side of matter. It has also pene-
trated into the secrets of physiology and evolution, and made
the very roots of life itself an object of investigation. In this
way the human mind has sunk deep into the sublunary world

26 "The Spirit Mercurius," esp. pars. 271, 282, 289.

27 See Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 131.

28 in "Chrysopoeia" (in Gratarolus, Verae alchemiae artisque metallicae, 1561,
pp. 269ft-.), which Augurellus dedicated to Pope Leo X. It contains an invocation
of the alma soror of Phoebus:

"Tu quoque, nee coeptis Cylleni audacibus usquam

Defueris, tibi nam puro de fonte perennis

Rivulus argentum, vulgo quod vivere dicunt,

Sufficit, et tantis praestat primordia rebus."
(You too, Cyllenian, this bold enterprise
Fail not, the stream from whose pure spring supplies
The silver men call "quick," the primal state
And first beginning of a work so great. [Trans, by A. S. B. Glover.])

29 In the Western Roman Empire there is a gap in this development, extending
from the 3rd to about the nth cent., that is, to the time of the first translations
from the Arabic.

232

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

of matter, thus repeating the Gnostic myth of the Nous, who,
beholding his reflection in the depths below, plunged down and
was swallowed in the embrace of Physis. The climax of this de-
velopment was marked in the eighteenth century by the French
Revolution, in the nineteenth century by scientific materialism,
and in the twentieth century by political and social "realism,"
which has turned the wheel of history back a full two thousand
years and seen the recrudescence of the despotism, the lack of
individual rights, the cruelty, indignity, and slavery of the pre-
Christian world, whose "labour problem" was solved by the
"ergastulum" (convict-camp). The "transvaluation of all values"
is being enacted before our eyes.

369 The development briefly outlined here seems to have been
anticipated in medieval and Gnostic symbolism, just as the
Antichrist was in the New Testament. How this occurred I will
endeavour to describe in what follows. We have seen that, as
the higher Adam corresponds to the lower, so the lower Adam
corresponds to the serpent. For the mentality of the Middle
Ages and of late antiquity, the first of the two double pyramids,
the Anthropos Quaternio, represents the world of the spirit, or
metaphysics, while the second, the Shadow Quaternio, repre-
sents sublunary nature and in particular man's instinctual dis-
position, the "flesh"— to use a Gnostic-Christian term— which has
its roots in the animal kingdom or, to be more precise, in the
realm of warm-blooded animals. The nadir of this system is
the cold-blooded vertebrate, the snake,30 for with the snake the
psychic rapport that can be established with practically all warm-
blooded animals comes to an end. That the snake, contrary to
expectation, should be a counterpart of the Anthropos is cor-
roborated by the fact— of especial significance for the Middle
Ages— that it is on the one hand a well-known allegory of Christ,
and on the other hand appears to be equipped with the gift of
wisdom and of supreme spirituality.31 As Hippolytus says, the
Gnostics identified the serpent with the spinal cord and the
medulla. These are synonymous with the reflex functions.

37° The second of these quaternios is the negative of the first;
it is its shadow. By "shadow" I mean the inferior personality, the
lowest levels of which are indistinguishable from the instinctu-

3(> Synonymous with the dragon, since draco also means snake.
31 $&ov irvevmaTLKwrardv, 'the most spiritual animal.'

233

AION

ality of an animal. This is a view that can be found at a very
early date, in the idea of the Trpoo-^s i/o^, the 'excrescent
soul' 32 of Isidorus.33 We also meet it in Origen, who speaks of
the animals contained in man.34 Since the shadow, in itself, is
unconscious for most people, the snake would correspond to
what is totally unconscious and incapable of becoming con-
scious, but which, as the collective unconscious and as instinct,
seems to possess a peculiar wisdom of its own and a knowledge
that is often felt to be supernatural. This is the treasure which
the snake (or dragon) guards, and also the reason why the snake
signifies evil and darkness on the one hand and wisdom on the
other. Its unrelatedness, coldness, and dangerousness express
the instinctuality that with ruthless cruelty rides roughshod
over all moral and any other human wishes and considerations
and is therefore just as terrifying and fascinating in its effects as

371 In alchemy the snake is the symbol of Mercurius non vulgi,
who was bracketed with the god of revelation, Hermes. Both
have a pneumatic nature. The serpens Mercurii is a chthonic
spirit who dwells in matter, more especially in the bit of original
chaos hidden in creation, the massa confusa or globosa. The
snake-symbol in alchemy points back to historically earlier
images. Since the opus was understood by the alchemists as a
recapitulation or imitation of the creation of the world, the
serpent of Mercurius, that crafty and deceitful god, reminded
them of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and therefore of the
devil, the tempter, who on their own admission played all sorts
of tricks on them during their work. Mephistopheles, whose
"aunt is the snake," is Goethe's version of the alchemical famil-
iar, Mercurius. Like the dragon, Mercurius is the slippery,
evasive, poisonous, dangerous forerunner of the hermaphrodite,
and for that reason he has to be overcome.

372 For the Naassenes Paradise was a quaternity parallel with

32 In Valentinus the "appendages" are spirits indwelling in man. Clement of
Alexandria, Stromata, II, 20, 112 and 114 (trans. Wilson, II, pp. 641".).

33 Isidorus was the son of Basilides. See Clement of Alexandria, ibid., II, 20, 113
(Wilson, II, p. 65). The "outgrowths" are animal souls, as of wolves, monkeys,
lions, etc.

34 in Levit. hom. V, 2 (Migne, P.G., vol. 12, col. 450): "So when thou seest that
thou hast all the things the world has, doubt not that thou hast within thee
even the animals which are offered in sacrifice."

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THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

the Moses quaternio and of similar meaning. Its fourfold nature
consisted in the four rivers, Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Phrat.35
The serpent in Genesis is an illustration of the personified tree-
numen; hence it is traditionally represented in or coiled round
the tree. It is the tree's voice, which persuades Eve— in Luther's
version— that "it would be good to eat of the tree, and pleasant
to behold that it is a lusty tree." In the fairytale of "The Spirit
in the Bottle," Mercurius can likewise be interpreted as a tree-
numen.36 In the Ripley "Scrowle" Mercurius appears as a snake
in the shape of a Melusina descending from the top of the Philo-
sophical Tree ("tree of knowledge").37 The tree stands for the
development and phases of the transformation process,38 and its
fruits or flowers signify the consummation of the work.39 In the
fairytale Mercurius is hidden in the roots of a great oak-tree,
i.e., in the earth. For it is in the interior of the earth that the
Mercurial serpent dwells.

For the alchemists Paradise was a favourite symbol of the
albedo*0 the regained state of innocence, and the source of its
rivers is a symbol of the aqua permanens*1 For the Church
Fathers Christ is this source,42 and Paradise means the ground
of the soul from which the fourfold river of the Logos bubbles
forth.43 We find the same symbol in the alchemist and mystic
John Pordage: divine Wisdom is a "New Earth, the heavenly
Land. . . . For from this Earth grew all the Trees of Life. . . .
Thus did Paradise . . . rise up from the Heart and Centre of
this New Earth, and thus did the lost Garden of Eden flourish in
greenness." 44

85 Euphrates. 36 "The Spirit Mercurius," Part I.

87 See Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 257. 88 Ibid., par. 357.

89 Ibid., fig. 122, and "The Philosophical Tree," pars. 402ff.

40 Ripley, Cantilena, verse 28 [cf. Mysterium Coniunctionis, p. 317], and Chym-
ische Schrifften, p. 51; also Mylius, Phil, ref., p. 124.

41 "A land to be watered with the clear water of paradise" (Hollandus, "Frag-
mentum de lapide," Theatr. chem., II, p. 142). The "Tractatus Aristotelis ad
Alexandrum Magnum (conscriptus et collectus a quodam Christiano Philoso-
pho)," Theatr. chem., V, p. 885, compares the "practica Aristotelis" with the
water of paradise, which makes man "whole" (incolumem) and immortal: "From
this water all true Philosophers have had life and infinite riches."

42 Didymus of Alexandria, De trinitate (Migne, P.G., vol. 39, col. 456).

43 St Ambrose, Explanationes in Psalmos, Ps. 45, 12 (Corp. Script. Eccl. Lat.,
LXIV, p. 337). Cf. Rahner, "Flumina de ventre Christi," pp. 269^.

44 Sophia (1699), p. 9.

235

AION

374 The snake symbol brings us to the images of Paradise, tree,
and earth. This amounts to an evolutionary regression from the
animal kingdom back to plants and inorganic nature, epitomized
in alchemy by the secret of matter, the lapis. Here the lapis is
not to be understood as the end product of the opus but rather
as its initial material. This arcane substance was also called lapis
by the alchemists. The symbolism here described can be repre-
sented diagrammatically as another quaternio or double pyra-
mid:

Serpent

Gihon

Hiddekel

Euphrates

Pison

Lapis

C. The Paradise Quaternio

375 The lapis was thought of as a unity and therefore often
stands for the prima materia in general. But just as the latter
is a bit of the original chaos which was believed to be hidden
somewhere in metals, particularly in mercury, or in other sub-
stances, and is not in itself a simple thing (as the name "massa
confusa" shows), so too the lapis consists of the four elements or

236

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

has to be put together from them.45 In the chaos the elements
are not united, they are merely coexistent and have to be com-
bined through the alchemical procedure. They are even hostile
to one another and will not unite of their own accord. They
represent, therefore, an original state of conflict and mutual
repulsion. This image serves to illustrate the splitting up or
unfolding of the original unity into the multiplicity of the
visible world. Out of the split-up quaternity the opus puts to-
gether the unity of the lapis in the realm of the inorganic. As
the filius macrocosmi and a living being, the lapis is not just an
allegory but is a direct parallel of Christ 46 and the higher Adam,
of the heavenly Original Man, of the second Adam (Christ), and
of the serpent. The nadir of this third quaternio is therefore a
further counterpart of the Anthropos.

As already mentioned, the constitution of the lapis rests on
the union of the four elements,47 which in their turn represent
an unfolding of the unknowable inchoate state, or chaos. This is
the prima materia, the arcanum, the primary substance, which
in Paracelsus and his followers is called the increatum and is
regarded as coeternal with God— a correct interpretation of the
Tehom in Genesis 1:2: "And the [uncreated] earth was with-
out form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep;
and the Spirit of God [brooded] over the face of the waters."
This primary substance is round (massa globosa, rotundum,
aroixdov oTpoyyvXov), like the world and the world-soul; it is in
fact the world-soul and the world-substance in one. It is the
"stone that has a spirit," 48 in modern parlance the most elemen-
tary building-stone in the architecture of matter, the atom,
which is an intellectual model. The alchemists describe the

45 The lapis is made of the four elements, like Adam. The centre of the squared
circle is the "mediator, making peace between the enemies or elements, so that
they may love one another in a meet embrace" ("Tractatus aureus," Theatr.
chem., IV, p. 691).

46 Cf. the evidence for this in Psychology and Alchemy, "The Lapis-Christ
Parallel."

47 Mylius (Phil, ref., p. 15) identifies the elements that constitute the lapis with
corpus, spiritus, and anima: corpus is matter, earth, and spiritus is the nodus
(bond) animae et corporis, and therefore corresponds to fire. Water and air, which
would properly characterize the anima, are also "spirit." Three of the elements
are "moving," one (earth) "unmoving." Cf. n. 89, infra.

48 Quotation from Ostanes in Zosimos, "Sur l'art" (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III,
vi, 5)-

237

377

AION

"round element" now as primal water, now as primal fire, or as
pneuma, primal earth, or "corpusculum nostrae sapientiae,"
the little body of our wisdom.49 As water or fire it is the uni-
versal solvent; as stone and metal it is something that has to be
dissolved and changed into air (pneuma, spirit).

This lapis symbolism can once more be visualized diagram-
matically as a double pyramid:

Lapis

Earth

Rotundum

D. The Lapis Quaternio

Zosimos calls the rotundum the omega element (fi), which
probably signifies the head.50 The skull is mentioned as the ves-
sel of transformation in the Sabaean treatise "Platonis liber
quartorum," 51 and the "Philosophers" styled themselves "chil-
dren of the golden head," 52 which is probably synonymous with
"filii sapientiae." The vas is often synonymous with the lapis,
so that there is no difference between the vessel and its content;

49 "Aurora consurgens," Art. aurif., I, p. 208.

50 Cf. my remarks on the significance of the head in "Transformation Symbolism
in the Mass," pars. 3653. "Head" also means "beginning," e.g., "head of the Nile,"
etc. 51 Theatr. chem., V, p. 151. 52 Berthelot, III, x, 1.

238

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

in other words, it is the same arcanum.53 According to the old
view the soul is round 54 and the vessel must be round too, like
the heavens or the world.55 The form of the Original Man is
round. Accordingly Dorn says that the vessel "should be made
from a kind of squaring of the circle, so that the spirit and the
soul of our material, separated from its body, may raise the body
with them to the height of their own heaven."50 The anony-
mous author of the scholia to the "Tractatus aureus" also writes
about the squaring of the circle and shows a square whose cor-
ners are formed by the four elements. In the centre there is a
small circle. The author says: "Reduce your stone to the four
elements, rectify and combine them into one, and you will have
the whole magistery. This One, to which the elements must be
reduced, is that little circle in the centre of this squared figure. It
is the mediator, making peace between the enemies or ele-
ments." 57 In a later chapter he depicts the vessel, "the true
philosophical Pelican," 58 as shown on the next page.59

53 "There is one stone, one medicine, one vessel, one method, one disposition"
(Rosarium philosophorum, Art. aurif., II, 206). "In our water all modes of things
are brought about. ... In the said water they are made as in an artificial vessel,
which is a mighty secret" (Mylius, Phil, ref., p. 245). "The Philosophical vessel is
their water" (ibid., p. 33). This saying comes from de Hoghelande's treatise in
Theatr. chem., I, p. 199. There we find: "Sulphur also is called by Lully the vessel
of Nature," and Haly's description of the vessel as "ovum." The egg is content and
container at once. The vas naturale is the aqua permanens and the "vinegar" of
the Philosophers. ("Aurora consurgens," Part II, Art. aurif., I, p. 203.)

54 Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogue on Miracles, trans. Scott and Bland, Dist. I,
chs. XXXII and XXXIV.

55 in Olympiodorus the transforming vessel is the "spherical phial" or Spyavov
kvkXikop (circular apparatus). (Berthelot, II, iv, 44.) "The spagiric vessel is to be
made after the likeness of the natural vessel. For we see that all heaven and the
elements have the likeness of a spherical body" (Dorn, Theatr. chem., I, p. 430).
"The end of all this master-work is, that the Philosophic Mercury be placed in the
heavenly sphere" (ibid, p. 499). Trevisanus calls the vessel the rotundum cubile,
"round bridal bed" ("Liber de alchemia," Theatr. chem., I, p. 790).

66 "Congeries," Theatr. chem., I, pp. 574L 57 Ibid., IV, p. 691.

58 "Nor is any other to be sought after in all the world." The Pelican is a dis-
tilling vessel, but the distillate, instead of dripping into the receiver, runs back
into the belly of the retort. We could take this as illustrating the process of con-
scious realization and the reapplication of conscious insights to the unconscious.
"It restored their former security of life to those once near to death," the author
says of the Pelican, which, as we know, is an allegory of Christ.

59 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 167, n. 44. [Also "Paracelsus as a Spiritual
Phenomenon," fig. B7.]

239

AION

378 He comments: "A is the inside, as it were the origin and
source from which the other letters flow, and likewise the final
goal to which all the others flow back, as rivers flow into the
ocean or into the great sea." This explanation is enough to show
that the vessel is nothing else but a mandala, symbolizing the
self or the higher Adam with his four emanations (like Horus
with his four sons). The author calls it the "Septenarius magicus
occultus" (the hidden magic number, seven).60 Likewise Maria

the Prophetess says: "The Philosophers teach everything except
the Hermetic vessel, because that is divine and is hidden from the
Gentiles by the Lord's wisdom; and they who know it not,
know not the true method, because of their ignorance of the
vessel of Hermes." Theobald de Hoghelande adds: "Senior says
that the vision thereof is more to be sought after than [knowl-
edge of] the Scriptures." Maria the Prophetess says: "This is the
vessel of Hermes, which the Stoics hid, and it is no nigromantic
vessel, but is the measure of thy fire [mensura ignis tui]."61

60 That is, counting the letters F and G (not included in the diagram), which
signify Above and Below.

61 Art. aurif., I, p. 324; Theatr. chem., I, p. 199; Art. aurif., I, p. 323.

240

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

379 It is clear from these quotations that the vessel had a great
and unusual significance.62 Philalethes, summing up the innu-
merable synonyms for Mercurius, says that Mercurius is not
only the key to the alchemical art, and "that two-edged sword
in the hand of the cherub who guards the way to the tree of
life," but also "our true, hidden vessel, the Philosophic garden,
wherein our Sun rises and sets."63 This helps us to understand,
more or less, the strange advice given by Johannes de Rupescissa:
"Have a vessel made after the manner of a cherub, which is the
figure of God, and have six wings, after the fashion of six arms,
turning back on themselves; and above, a round head . . . and
put within this vessel the said burning water," etc.64 The defini-
tion of the cherub as "the figure of God" suggests that Ru-
pescissa is referring here to the vision of Ezekiel, which was
arranged in such a way that a horizontal section through it
would produce a mandala divided into four parts. This, as I
have already mentioned, is equivalent to the squaring of the
circle, from which, according to one alchemical recipe, the ves-
sel should be constructed. The mandala signifies the human or
divine self, the totality or vision of God, as in this case is quite
clear. Naturally a recipe of this sort can only be understood
"philosophically," that is psychologically. It then reads: make
the Hermetic vessel out of your psychic wholeness and pour into
it the aqua permanens, or aqua doctrinae, one of whose syno-
nyms is the vinum ardens (cf. Rupescissa's "burning water").
This would be a hint that the adept should "inwardly digest"
and transform himself through the alchemical doctrine.

38° In this connection we can also understand what the Aurora
consurgens (Part II) means when it speaks of the vas naturale
as the matrix: it is the "One in which there are three things,
namely water, air, and fire. They are three glass alembics, in
which the son of the Philosophers is begotten. Therefore they
have named it tincture, blood, and egg.*' 65 The three alembics
are an allusion to the Trinity. That this is in fact so can be seen
from the illustration on page 249 of the 1588 edition of Pandora,
where, beside the three alembics immersed in a great cooking-
pot, there stands the figure of Christ, with blood pouring from

62 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 338. 63 Mus. herm., p. 770.

64 La Vertu et la propriete de la quinte essence (1581), p. 26.

65 Art. aurif., I, p. 203.

841

AION

the lance wound in his breast ("flumina de ventre Christi"!).66
The round Hermetic vessel in which the mysterious transforma-
tion is accomplished is God himself, the (Platonic) world-soul
and man's own wholeness. It is, therefore, another counterpart
of the Anthropos, and at the same time the universe in its
smallest and most material form. So it is easy to see why the first
attempts to construct a model of the atom took the planetary
system as a prototype.

381 The quaternity is an organizing schema par excellence,
something like the crossed threads in a telescope. It is a system
of co-ordinates that is used almost instinctively for dividing up
and arranging a chaotic multiplicity, as when we divide up the
visible surface of the earth, the course of the year, or a collec-
tion of individuals into groups,67 the phases of the moon, the
temperaments, elements, alchemical colours, and so on. Thus,
when we come upon a quaternio among the Gnostics, we find in
it an attempt, more or less conscious, to organize the chaotic
medley of numinous images that poured in upon them. As we
have seen, the arrangement took a form that derives from the
primitive cross-cousin marriage, namely the marriage quater-
nio.68 This differs from the primitive form in that the sister-
exchange marriage has sloughed off its biological character, the
sister's husband no longer being the wife's brother but another
close relative (such as the wife's father in the Moses Quaternio),
or even a stranger. The loss of the cousin- and brother-attribute
is compensated as a rule by magical qualities, such as more
exalted rank, magical powers, and the like, both in the case of
the husband's sister and the wife's brother. That is to say, an
anima-animus projection takes place. This modification brings
with it a great cultural advance, for the very fact of projection
points to a constellation of the unconscious in the husband-wife
relationship, which means that the marriage has become psy-
chologically complicated. It is no longer a state of mere bio-

66 "Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon," fig. B4.

67 Marriage classes and settlements.

68 "Psychology of the Transference," pars. 433ff. [Cf. Layard, Stone Men of
Malekula, chs. 5 and 6, and "The Incest Taboo and the Virgin Archetype," pp.
266ff.— Editors.]

84*

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

logical and social coexistence, but is beginning to turn into a
conscious relationship. This happens when the original cross-
cousin marriage becomes obsolete as a result of the further dif-
ferentiation of marriage classes into a six-, eight-, or twelve-class
system. The cause of the activation of the unconscious that goes
hand in hand with this development is the regression of the
endogamous tendency— the "kinship libido"— which can no
longer find adequate satisfaction owing to the increasing
strangeness of the marriage partner.69

Besides the marriage quaternio, the Gnostics also used the
quaternity of the rivers of Paradise as a means of organizing
their numerous symbols. There are thus two (compensatory)
attempts, in the symbols we have listed, to organize the appar-
ently disconnected images. This accords with our experience of
the series of pictures produced during active imagination and in
chaotic psychic states. In both cases quaternity symbols appear
from time to time.70 They signify stabilization through order as
opposed to the instability caused by chaos, and have a compensa-
tory meaning.

The four quaternios depicted above are first and foremost an
attempt to arrange systematically the almost limitless wealth of
symbols in Gnosticism and its continuation, alchemy. But such
an arrangement of principles also proves useful for understand-
ing the individual symbolism of modern dreams. The images we
encounter in this field are even more varied, and so confusing
in their complexity that some kind of organizing schema is abso-
lutely essential. As it is advisable to proceed historically, I have
taken the Moses Quaternio as a starting point, because it derives
directly from the primitive schema of the cross-cousin marriage.
Naturally this quaternio has only a paradigmatic significance.
One could base the system just as easily on any other marriage
quaternio, but not on any other quaternity, such as, for instance,
Horus and his four sons. This quaternity is not aboriginal
enough, for it misses out the antagonistic, feminine element.71

69 "Psychology of the Transference," par. 438.

70 Case material in Psychology and Alchemy, part II. Triadic symbols also occur,
but they are rarer.

71 The Gnostic quaternio is naturally later than the Horus quaternity in point of
time, but psychologically it is older, because in it the feminine element reassumes
its rightful place, as is not the case with the patriarchal Horus quaternio.

243

AION

It is most important that just the extreme opposites, masculine-
feminine and so on, should appear linked together. That is why
the alchemical pairs of opposites are linked together in qua-
ternities, e.g., warm-cold, dry-moist. Applied to the Moses
Quaternio, the following schema of relationships would result:

JETHRO

Father

MOSES

Brother

MIRIAM

Sister

ZIPPORAH

Daughter

384 Whereas the first double pyramid, the Anthropos Quaternio,
corresponds to the Gnostic model, the second one is a construc-
tion derived psychologically from the first, but based on the data
contained in the Biblical text used by the Gnostics. The psycho-
logical reasons for constructing a second quaternio have already
been discussed. That the second must be the "shadow" of the
first is due to the fact that the lower Adam, the mortal man,
possesses a chthonic psyche and is therefore not adequately ex-
pressed by a quaternity supraordinate to him. If he were, he
would be an unsymmetrical figure, just as the higher Adam is
unsymmetrical and has to be complemented by a subordinate
quaternity related to him like his shadow or his darker reflection.

385 Now just as the Anthropos Quaternio finds its symmetrical
complement in the lower Adam, so the lower Adam is balanced
by the subordinate Shadow Quaternio, constructed after the
pattern of the upper one. The symmetrical complement of the
lower Adam is the serpent. The choice of this symbol is justified
firstly by the well-known association of Adam with the snake:
it is his chthonic daemon, his familiar spirit. Secondly, the snake
is the commonest symbol for the dark, chthonic world of in-
stinct. It may— as frequently happens— be replaced by an equiv-
alent cold-blooded animal, such as a dragon, crocodile, or fish.

244

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

But the snake is not just a nefarious, chthonic being; it is also,
as we have already mentioned, a symbol of wisdom, and hence
of light, goodness, and healing.72 Even in the New Testament
it is simultaneously an allegory of Christ and of the devil, just
as we have seen that the fish was. Similarly the dragon, which
for us has only a negative meaning, has a positive significance
in China, and sometimes in Western alchemy too. The inner
polarity of the snake-symbol far exceeds that of man. It is overt,
whereas man's is partly latent or potential. The serpent sur-
passes Adam in cleverness and knowledge and can outwit him.
She is older than he, and is evidently equipped by God with a
superhuman intelligence, like that son of God who took over
the role of Satan.73

Just as man culminates above in the idea of a "light" and
good God, so he rests below on a dark and evil principle, tradi-
tionally described as the devil or as the serpent that personifies
Adam's disobedience. And just as we symmetrized man by the
serpent, so the serpent has its complement in the second Naas-
sene quaternio, or Paradise Quaternio. Paradise takes us into
the world of plants and animals. It is, in fact, a plantation or
garden enlivened by animals, the epitome of all the growing
things that sprout out of the earth. As serpens raercurialis, the
snake is not only related to the god of revelation, Hermes, but,
as a vegetation numen, calls forth the "blessed greenness," all
the budding and blossoming of plant life.74 Indeed, this serpent
actually dwells in the interior of the earth and is the pneuma
that lies hidden in the stone.75

The symmetrical complement of the serpent, then, is the
stone as representative of the earth. Here we enter a later de-
velopmental stage of the symbolism, the alchemical stage, whose
central idea is the lapis. Just as the serpent forms the lower
opposite of man, so the lapis complements the serpent. It corre-
sponds, on the other hand, to man, for it is not only represented

72 Like, for instance, the Aesculapian and Agathodaimon serpent.

73 Scharf, "Die Gestalt des Satans im Alten Testament," p. 151.

74 "O blessed greenness, which givest birth to all things, whence know that no
vegetable and no fruit appears in the bud but that it hath a green colour. Like-
wise know that the generation of this thing is green, for which reason the
Philosophers have called it a bud." (Ros. phil., Art. aurif., II, p. 220.)

75 Cf. the Ostanes quotation in Zosimos, Psychology and Alchemy, par. 405.

*45

AION

in human form but even has "body, soul, and spirit," is an
homunculus and, as the texts show, a symbol of the self. It is,
however, not a human ego but a collective entity, a collective
soul, like the Indian hiranyagarbha, 'golden seed.' The stone is
the "father-mother" of the metals, an hermaphrodite. Though
it is an ultimate unity, it is not an elementary but a composite
unity that has evolved. For the stone we could substitute all
those "thousand names" which the alchemists devised for their
central symbol, but nothing different or more fitting would have
been said.

388 This choice of symbol, too, is not arbitrary, but is docu-
mented by alchemical literature from the first to the eighteenth
century. The lapis is produced, as we have already seen, from
the splitting and putting together of the four elements, from
the rotundum. The rotundum is a highly abstract, transcendent
idea, which by reason of its roundness 76 and wholeness refers to
the Original Man, the Anthropos.

389 Accordingly our four double pyramids would arrange them-
selves in a circle and form the well-known uroboros. As the
fifth stage, the rotundum would then be identical with the first;
that is to say, the heavy darkness of the earth, metal, has a secret
relationship to the Anthropos. That is obvious in alchemy, but
occurs also in the history of religion, where the metals grow
from Gayomart's blood.77 This curious relationship is explained
by the identity of the lowest, most material thing with the high-
est and most spiritual, which we have already met in the inter-
pretation of the serpent as a chthonic and at the same time the
"most spiritual" animal. In Plato the rotundum is the world-
soul and a "blessed God." 78

76 A hint that rotation may be a principle of matter.

77 According to the report of the Damdad-Nashk (Reitzenstein and Schader,
Studien zum antiken Syncretismus aus Iran und Griechenland, p. 18). Gayomart
is the Original Man in the theosophical version of Zarathustra's system. Yima, on
the other hand, is the Original Man of ancient Aryan legend. His name is Yimo
kshaito, 'the shining Yima.' According to the Mainyo-i-Khard, the metals were
created from his body. (Kohut, "Die talmudisch-midraschische Adamssage," pp. 68,
70.) In the Bundahish, Gayomart's body consisted of metals. (Christensen, "Le
Premier Homme et le premier roi dans l'histoire legendaire des Iraniens," p. 21.)
W [Cf. "A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity," par. 185. —
Editors.]

246

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

39° We shall now try to condense the argument of the previous
chapter and represent it graphically. Vertically arranged, our
schema looks like this:

Anthropot

Christus (J D D Diabolut

Rotundum

In the diagram I have emphasized the point of greatest ten-
sion between the opposites, namely the double significance of
the serpent, which occupies the centre of the system. Being an
allegory of Christ as well as of the devil, it contains and sym-
bolizes the strongest polarity into which the Anthropos falls
when he descends into Physis. The ordinary man has not
reached this point of tension: he has it merely in the uncon-
scious, i.e., in the serpent.79 In the lapis, the counterpart of man,

79 Most people do not have sufficient range of consciousness to become aware of
the opposites inherent in human nature. The tensions they generate remain for
the most part unconscious, but can appear in dreams. Traditionally, the snake
stands for the vulnerable spot in man: it personifies his shadow, i.e., his weakness
and unconsciousness. The greatest danger about unconsciousness is proneness to
suggestion. The effect of suggestion is due to the release of an unconscious

247

AION

the opposites are so to speak united, but with a visible seam or
suture as in the symbol of the hermaphrodite. This mars the
idea of the lapis just as much as the all-too-human element mars
Homo sapiens. In the higher Adam and in the rotundum the
opposition is invisible. But presumably the one stands in abso-
lute opposition to the other, and if both are identical as in-
distinguishable transcendental entities, this is one of those
paradoxes that are the rule: a statement about something meta-
physical can only be antinomial.
391 The arrangement in the uroboros gives the following
picture:

Anthropos-Rotundum

Lapis

Homo

Serpens

This arrangement shows the stronger tension between an-
thropos-rotundum and serpens on the one hand, and the lesser

dynamic, and the more unconscious this is, the more effective it will be. Hence
the ever-widening split between conscious and unconscious increases the danger
of psychic infection and mass psychosis. With the loss of symbolic ideas the bridge
to the unconscious has broken down. Instinct no longer affords protection against
unsound ideas and empty slogans. Rationality without tradition and without a
basis in instinct is proof against no absurdity.

X48

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

tension between homo and lapis on the other, expressed by
the distance of the points in question from one another. The
arrows indicate the descent into Physis and the ascent towards
the spiritual. The lowest point is the serpent. The lapis, how-
ever, though of decidedly material nature, is also a spiritual
symbol, while the rotundum connotes a transcendent entity sym-
bolized by the secret of matter and thus comparable to the con-
cept of the atom. The antinomial development of the concepts
is in keeping with the paradoxical nature of alchemy.

The lapis quaternity, which is a product of alchemical
gnosis, brings us to the interesting physical speculations of
alchemy. In the Scrutinium chymicum (1687) of Michael Maier
(1568-1622), there is a picture80 of the four elements as four
different stages of fire (Plate I).

As the picture shows, the four spheres are filled with fire.
The author comments with the following verses:

Naturae qui imitaris opus, tibi quattuor orbes
Quaerendi, interius quos levis ignis agat.

Imus Vulcanum referat, bene monstret at alter
Mercurium, Lunam tertius orbis habet:

Quartus, Apollo, tuus, naturae auditur et ignis,
Ducat in arte manus ilia catena tuas.

From this we learn that the lowest sphere corresponds to
Vulcan, the earthly (?) fire; the second to Mercurius, the vegeta-
tive life-spirit; the third to the moon, the female, psychic prin-
ciple; and the fourth to the sun, the male, spiritual principle. It
is evident from Maier's commentary that he is concerned on the
one hand with the four elements and on the other with the four
kinds of fire which are responsible for producing different states
of aggregation. His ignis elementalis re et nomine would,
according to its place in the sequence, correspond to Vulcan;
the fire of Mercurius to air; the third fire to water and the
moon; and the fourth, which would correspond to the sun, he
calls "terreus" (earthly). According to Ripley, whom Maier
quotes, the ignis elementalis is the fire "which lights wood"; it
must therefore be the ordinary fire. The sun-fire, on the other
hand, seems to be the fire in the earth, which today we would

80 Emblema XVII, p. 49.

249

AION

call "volcanic," and corresponds to the solid state of aggrega-
tion ("terreus"). We thus get the following series:

VIGENERE SERIES81 RIPLEY SERIES

ignis mundi intelligibilis = ignis naturalis82 =

ignis caelestis — ignis innaturalis83 =

ignis elementaris — ignis contra naturamM =

ignis infernalis81 = ignis elementalis =

MAIER SERIES

ignis terreus = Sulfura et Mercurii = Sun (Apollo) = earth
ignis aqueus = aquae = Moon (Luna) = water

ignis aerius = dracones = Mercurius = air

ignis elementalis = ignis elementalis = Ordinary fire — fire
re et nomine (Vulcan)

STATES OF AGGREGATION

= solid
= liquid
= gas
= flame

394 The remarkable thing about this paralleling of states of
aggregation with different kinds of fire is that it amounts to a
kind of phlogiston theory — not, of course, explicit, but clearly
hinted at: fire is peculiar to all the states of aggregation and is
therefore responsible for their constitution. This idea is old 85
and can be found as early as the Turba, where Dardaris says:
"The sulphurs are four souls [animae] which were hidden in
the four elements." 86 Here the active principle (anima) is not
fire, but sulphur. The idea, however, is the same, namely that
the elements or states of aggregation can be reduced to a com-
mon denominator. Today we know that the factor common to
antagonistic elements is molecular movement, and that the states

81 Vigenere comments: "The intelligible fire of the world: is all light. The heavenly
fire: partakes of heat and light. The elemental fire: less in light, heat, and glow.
The infernal fire: opposed to the intelligible, of heat and burning without any
light." ("De igne et sale," Theatr. chem., VI, p. 39.) [Cf. supra, par. 203.]

82 "Is present in everything." 83 "The heat of ashes and baths."

84 "Tortures bodies, is the dragon." 85 The oldest source is Heraclitus.

86 Turba, ed. by Ruska, Sermo XLIII, p. 149.

250

I. The Four Elements
From Michael Maier, Scrutinium chymicum (1687)

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

of aggregation correspond to different degrees of this move-
ment. Molecular movement in its turn corresponds to a certain
quantum of energy, so that the common denominator of the
elements is energy. One of the stepping-stones to the modern
concept of energy is Stahl's phlogiston theory,87 which is based
on the alchemical premises discussed above. We can see in them,
therefore, the earliest beginnings of a theory of energy.88

The phlogiston theory adumbrated by the alchemists did
not get as far as that, but it points unmistakably in that direc-
tion. Moreover, all the mathematical and physical elements
from which a theory of energy could have been constructed were
known in the seventeenth century. Energy is an abstract con-
cept which is indispensable for exact description of the be-
haviour of bodies in motion. In the same way bodies in motion
can only be apprehended with the help of the system of space-
time co-ordinates. Wherever movement is established, it is done
by means of the space-time quaternio, which can be expressed
either by the axiom of Maria, 3 -f- 1, or by the sesquitertian pro-
portion, 3 : 4. This quaternio could therefore replace that of the
four elements, where the unit that corresponds to the time-co-
ordinate, or the fourth in the alchemical series of elements, is
characterized by the fact that one element has an exceptional
position, like fire or earth.89

The exceptional position of one of the factors in a quater-
nity can also be expressed by its duplex nature. For instance,
the fourth of the rivers of Paradise, the Euphrates, signifies the
mouth through which food goes in and prayers go out, as well
as the Logos. In the Moses Quaternio, the wife of Moses plays
the double role of Zipporah and of the Ethiopian woman. If
we construct a quaternity from the divine equivalents of Maier's

87 G. E. Stahl (1660-1734) supposed that all combustible (i.e., oxidizable) sub-
stances contain an igneous principle. It was assumed to be weightless, or even to
possess a negative weight. Cf. H. E. Fierz-David, Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der
Chemie, pp. 1481".

88 Psychologically, of course, the primitive idea of mana is very much older, but
here we are talking of scientific concepts. The sulphur = anima equation still con-
tains a trace of the original mana theory. Earlier, mana was characteristically mis-
understood as animism.

89 Fire as spiritual, the other elements material; earth unmoving, the others
moving.

251

AION

four elements— Apollo, Luna, Mercurius, Vulcan— we get a mar-
riage quaternio with a brother-sister relationship:

Apollo

Luna

Vulcan

Mercurius duplex

In alchemy Mercurius is male-female and frequently appears
as a virgin too. This characteristic (3 + l> or 3 : 4) *s a^so appar-
ent in the space-time quaternio:

Height

Depth

Time

397

If we look at this quaternio from the standpoint of the
three-dimensionality of space, then time can be conceived as a
fourth dimension. But if we look at it in terms of the three
qualities of time— past, present, future— then static space, in
which changes of state occur, must be added as a fourth term.
In both cases, the fourth represents an incommensurable Other
that is needed for their mutual determination. Thus we measure
space by time and time by space. The Other, the fourth, corre-
sponds in the Gnostic quaternities to the fiery god, "the fourth
by number," to the dual wife of Moses (Zipporah and the Ethi-
opian woman), to the dual Euphrates (river and Logos), to the
fire90 in the alchemical quaternio of elements, to Mercurius
duplex in Maier's quaternio of gods, and in the "Christian

90 Bohme calls the "fire of Nature" the "fourth form.
De signatura rerum (1682), p. 279.

252

'Tabula principiorum,"

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

Quaternity"— if such an expression be permitted 91— to Mary or
the devil. These two incompatible figures are united in the
Mercurius duplex of alchemy.92

The space-time quaternio is the archetypal sine qua non for
any apprehension of the physical world— indeed, the very pos-
sibility of apprehending it. It is the organizing schema par excel-
lence among the psychic quaternities. In its structure it cor-
responds to the psychological schema of the functions.93 The
3 : 1 proportion frequently occurs in dreams and in spontaneous
mandala-drawings.

A modern parallel to the diagram of quaternities arranged
on top of one another (cf. par. 390), coupled with the idea of
ascent and descent, can be found among the illustrations to my
paper on mandala pictures.94 The same idea also appears in
the pictures relating to a case described there at some length,
and dealing with vibrations that formed "nodes."95 Each of
these nodes signified an outstanding personality, as was true
also of the picture in the first case. A similar motif may well
underlie the representation of the Trinity here appended
(Plate II), from the manuscript of a treatise by Joachim of
Flora.96

91 The doctrine of Sabellius (beginning of the 2nd cent.) concerning the preworldly
Monad, the "silent and unacting God" and its three prosopa (modes of manifesta-
tion), calls for further investigation, as it bequeathed to posterity the first begin-
nings of a quaternary view of the Deity. Thus Joachim of Flora makes the follow-
ing accusation against Peter Lombard: "Quod in suis dixit Sententiis, quoniam
quaedam suraraa res est Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus et ilia non est generans,
neque genita, neque procedens: unde asserit quod ille non tarn Trinitatem, quam
quaternitatem astruebat in Deo, videlicet tres personas, et illam communem
essentiam quasi quartam." (As he [Peter] says in his Book of Sentences, For a cer-
tain supreme Something is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and It neither begets, nor
is begotten, nor proceeds. On this basis Joachim asserts that the Lombard ascribed
not Trinity, but Quaternity to God, that is to say, three Persons, and that common
Something as a fourth). (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. Decrees, Cap. 2; Denzinger
and Bannwart, Enchiridion, p. 190.) Cf. "A Psychological Approach to the Dogma
of the Trinity," pars. 243ff.

92 cf <<The Spirit Mercurius," pars. 267ft".

93 The three relatively differentiated functions and one undifferentiated, "inferior"
function. Cf. Psychological Types, and the diagrams in Jacobi, The Psychology of
C. G. Jung.

94 "A Study in the Process of Individuation," fig. 2, p. 309.

95 Ibid., Picture 3 and accompanying text.

96 Zurich Central Library, Graphics Collection, B x 606.

253

AION

400 1 would like, in conclusion, to mention the peculiar theory
of world creation in the Clementine Homilies. In God, pneuma
and soma are one. When they separate, pneuma appears as the
Son and "archon of the future Aeon," but soma, actual sub-
stance (ovma) or matter (vkrj), divides into four, corresponding to
the four elements (wh;ch were always solemnly invoked at
initiations). From the mixing of the four parts there arose the
devil, the "archon of this Aeon," and the psyche of this world.
Soma had become psychized {liixpvxov): "God rules this world
as much through the devil as through the Son, for both are in his
hands." 97 God unfolds himself in the world in the form of
syzygies (paired opposites), such as heaven/earth, day/night,
male /female, etc. The last term of the first series is the Adam/
Eve syzygy. At the end of this fragmentation process there fol-
lows the return to the beginning, the consummation of the
universe (rtkev-rq tw iravruv) through purification and annihila-
tion.98

i01 Anyone who knows alchemy can hardly avoid being struck

by the likeness which pseudo-Clement's theory bears to the basic
conceptions of the alchemists, if we disregard its moral aspects.
Thus we have the "hostile brothers," Christ and the devil, who
were regarded as brothers in the Jewish-Christian tradition; the
tetrameria into four parts or elements; the paired opposites and
their ultimate unity; the parallel of the lapis and Mercurius
with Christ and, because of the snake or dragon symbolism, also
with the devil; and finally, the figure of Mercurius duplex and
of the lapis, which unites the opposites indivisibly in itself.

4°2 If we look back over the course our argument has taken, we
see at the beginning of it two Gnostic quaternities, one of which
is supraordinate, and the other subordinate, to man, namely the
"Positive Moses" or Anthropos Quaternio, and the Paradise
Quaternio.99 It is probably no accident that Hippolytus men-

97 Harnack, Dogmengeschichte , I, p. 334.

98 Condensed from the reconstruction by Uhlhorn, in Realencyklopddie fur
Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, ed. by Hauck, IV, pp. 173ft.

99 To avoid misunderstandings I would like to emphasize that "Paradise" is used
here not in the metaphorical sense, as "future heaven" or the Abode of the
Blessed, but in the sense of the earthly Garden of Eden.

254

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II. The Trinity
From a manuscript by Joachim of Flora

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

tions precisely these two quaternities, or that the Naassenes
knew only these, for the position of man is, in their system,
closely connected with the higher Adam but is separated from
the chthonic world of plants and animals, namely Paradise. Only
through his shadow has he a relationship to the serpent with its
dual meaning. This situation is altogether characteristic of the
age of Gnosticism and early Christianity. Man in those days was
close to the "kingless [i.e., independent] race," that is, to the
upper quaternity, the kingdom of heaven, and looked upward.
But what begins above does not rise higher, but ends below.
Thus we felt impelled to symmetrize the lower Adam of the
Naassenes by a Shadow Quaternio, for just as he cannot ascend
direct to the higher Adam— since the Moses Quaternio lies in
between— so we have to assume a lower, shadowy quaternity
corresponding to the upper one, lying between him and the
lower principle, the serpent. This operation was obviously un-
known in the Gnostic age, because the unsymmetrical upward
trend seemed to disturb nobody, but rather to be the very thing
desired and "on the programme." If, therefore, we insert be-
tween Man and Serpent a quaternity not mentioned in the
texts, we do so because we can no longer conceive of a psyche
that is oriented exclusively upwards and that is not balanced by
an equally strong consciousness of the lower man. This is a
specifically modern state of affairs and, in the context of Gnostic
thinking, an obnoxious anachronism that puts man in the centre
of the field of consciousness where he had never consciously
stood before. Only through Christ could he actually see this
consciousness mediating between God and the world, and by
making the person of Christ the object of his devotions he gradu-
ally came to acquire Christ's position as mediator. Through the
Christ crucified between the two thieves man gradually attained
knowledge of his shadow and its duality. This duality had al-
ready been anticipated by the double meaning of the serpent.
Just as the serpent stands for the power that heals as well as
corrupts, so one of the thieves is destined upwards, the other
downwards, and so likewise the shadow is on one side regrettable
and reprehensible weakness, on the other side healthy instinc-
tivity and the prerequisite for higher consciousness.

Thus the Shadow Quaternio that counterbalances man's

255

AION

position as mediator only falls into place when that position has
become sufficiently real for him to feel his consciousness of him-
self or his own existence more strongly than his dependence on
and governance by God. Therefore, if we complement the up-
ward-tending pneumatic attitude that characterizes the early
Christian and Gnostic mentality by adding its opposite counter-
part, this is in line with the historical development. Man's
original dependence on a pneumatic sphere, to which he clung
like a child to its mother, was threatened by the kingdom of
Satan. From him the pneumatic man was delivered by the Re-
deemer, who broke the gates of hell and deceived the archons;
but he was bound to the kingdom of heaven in exactly the
same degree. He was separated from evil by an abyss. This
attitude was powerfully reinforced by the immediate expecta-
tion of the Second Coming. But when Christ did not reappear,
a regression was only to be expected. When such a great hope is
dashed and such great expectations are not fulfilled, then the
libido perforce flows back into man and heightens his conscious-
ness of himself by accentuating his personal psychic processes;
in other words, he gradually moves into the centre of his field
of consciousness. This leads to separation from the pneumatic
sphere and an approach to the realm of the shadow. Accordingly,
man's moral consciousness is sharpened, and, as a parallel to this,
his feeling of redemption becomes relativized. The Church has
to exalt the significance and power of her ritual in order to put
limits to the inrush of reality. In this way she inevitably becomes
a "kingdom of this world." The transition from the Anthropos
to the Shadow Quaternio illustrates an historical development
which led, in the eleventh century, to a widespread recognition
of the evil principle as the world creator.

404 The serpent and its chthonic wisdom form the turning-point
of the great drama. The Paradise Quaternio with the lapis, that
comes next, brings us to the beginnings of natural science
(Roger Bacon, 1214-94; Albertus Magnus, 1193-1280; and the
alchemists), whose main trend differs from the pneumatic not by
1800 but only by 900— that is to say, it cuts across the spiritual
attitude of the Church and is more an embarrassment for faith
than a contradiction of it.

4°5 From the lapis, i.e., from alchemy, the line leads direct to

256

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

the quaternio of alchemical states of aggregation, which, as we
have seen, is ultimately based on the space-time quaternio. The
latter comes into the category of archetypal quaternities and
proves, like these, to be an indispensable principle for organiz-
ing the sense-impressions which the psyche receives from bodies
in motion. Space and time form a psychological a priori, an
aspect of the archetypal quaternity which is altogether indis-
pensable for acquiring knowledge of physical processes.

The development from the Shadow to the Lapis Quaternio
illustrates the change in man's picture of the world during the
course of the second millennium. The series ends with the con-
cept of the rotundum, or of rotation as contrasted with the static
quality of the quaternity, which, as we have said, proves to be
of prime importance for apprehending reality. The rise of scien-
tific materialism connected with this development appears on
the one hand as a logical consequence, on the other hand as a
deification of matter. This latter aspect is based, psychologically,
on the fact that the rotundum coincides with the archetype of
the Anthropos.

With this insight the ring of the uroboros closes, that symbol
of the opus circulare of Nature as well as of the "Art."

Our quaternio series could also be expressed in the form of
an equation, where A stands for the initial state (in this case the
Anthropos) and for the end state, and BCD for intermediate
states. The formations that split off from them are denoted in
each case by the small letters abed. With regard to the con-
struction of the formula, we must bear in mind that we are con-
cerned with the continual process of transformation of one and
the same substance. This substance, and its respective state of
transformation, will always bring forth its like; thus A will pro-
duce a and B b; equally, b produces B and c C. It is also assumed
that a is followed by b and that the formula runs from left to
right. These assumptions are legitimate in a psychological
formula.

Naturally the formula cannot be arranged in linear fashion

257

AION

but only in a circle, which for that reason moves to the right.
A produces its like, a. From a the process advances by contin-
gence to b, which in turn produces B. The transformation turns
rightwards with the sun; that is, it is a process of becoming con-
scious, as is already indicated by the splitting (discrimination)
of A B C D each time into four qualitatively discrete units.100
Our scientific understanding today is not based on a quaternity
but on a trinity of principles (space, time, causality).101 Here,
however, we are moving not in the sphere of modern scientific
thinking, but in that of the classical and medieval view of the
world, which up to the time of Leibniz recognized the principle
of correspondence and applied it naively and unreflectingly.
In order to give our judgment on ^—expressed by abc— the char-
acter of wholeness, we must supplement our time-conditioned
thinking by the principle of correspondence or, as I have called
it, synchronicity.102 The reason for this is that our description
of Nature is in certain respects incomplete and accordingly ex-
cludes observable facts from our understanding or else formu-
lates them in an unjustifiably negative way, as for instance in
the paradox of "an effect without a cause." 103 Our Gnostic
quaternity is a naive product of the unconscious and therefore
represents a psychic fact which can be brought into relationship
with the four orienting functions of consciousness; for the
rightward movement of the process is, as I have said, the expres-
sion of conscious discrimination 104 and hence an application of
the four functions that constitute the essence of a conscious
process.
410 The whole cycle necessarily returns to its beginning, and
does so at the moment when D, in point of contingence the
state furthest removed from A, changes into a3 by a kind of
enantiodromia. We thus have:

100 Corresponding to the phylokrinesis. [Cf. supra, pars. 118, 133.]
101 1 am not counting the space-time continuum of modern physics.

102 Cf. "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle."

103 [Jeans, Physics and Philosophy, pp. 127, 151.— Editors.]

104 The immediate cause is the rightward movement of our writing. The right, so
to speak, is ruled by conscious reason: the right is "right" in all senses (upright,
downright, forthright, etc.). The left is the side of the heart, the emotions, where
one is affected by the unconscious.

*58

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

63 d

c8 a3 = A = a c

\ / \ /

d3 b

II II

D B

II II

d>2 b\

/ \ / \

«2 C2 = C = Ci «i

\ / \ /

The formula reproduces exactly the essential features of the
symbolic process of transformation. It shows the rotation of the
mandala,105 the antithetical play of complementary (or com-
pensatory) processes, then the apocatastasis, i.e., the restoration
of an original state of wholeness, which the alchemists expressed
through the symbol of the uroboros, and finally the formula
repeats the ancient alchemical tetrameria,106 which is implicit

/ \

in the fourfold structure of unity: A = a c. What the for-

\ /

mula can only hint at, however, is the higher plane that is
reached through the process of transformation and integration.
The "sublimation" or progress or qualitative change consists in
an unfolding of totality into four parts four times, which means
nothing less than its becoming conscious. When psychic con-
tents are split up into four aspects, it means that they have been
subjected to discrimination by the four orienting functions of
consciousness. Only the production of these four aspects makes
a total description possible. The process depicted by our for-
mula changes the originally unconscious totality into a conscious
one. The Anthropos A descends from above through his Shadow
B into Physis C ( = serpent), and, through a kind of crystalliza-
tion process D ( = lapis) that reduces chaos to order, rises again

105 Cf. "On Mandala Symbolism," figs. 19, 21, 37, 60.

106 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 189 and sogf., in relation to the four

regimina and dispositiones.

259

AION

to the original state, which in the meantime has been trans-
formed from an unconscious into a conscious one. Consciousness
and understanding arise from discrimination, that is, through
analysis (dissolution) followed by synthesis, as stated in sym-
bolical terms by the alchemical dictum: "Solve et coagula" (dis-
solve and coagulate). The correspondence is represented by the
identity of the letters a, a1} a2, az, and so on. That is to say, we
are dealing all the time with the same factor, which in the for-
mula merely changes its place, whereas psychologically its name
and quality change too. At the same time it becomes clear that
the change of place is always an enantiodromian change of situa-
tion, corresponding to the complementary or compensatory
changes in the psyche as a whole. It was in this way that the
changing of the hexagrams in the / Ching was understood by
the classical Chinese commentators. Every archetypal arrange-
ment has its own numinosity, as is apparent from the very
names given to it. Thus a to d is the "kingless race," «i to dx
is the Shadow Quaternio, which is annoying, because it stands
for the all-too-human human being (Nietzsche's "Ugliest
Man"),107 a2 to d2 is "Paradise," which speaks for itself, and
finally a3 to d3 is the world of matter, whose numinosity in the
shape of materialism threatens to suffocate our world. What
changes these correspond to in the history of the human mind
over the last two thousand years I need hardly specify in detail.
411 The formula presents a symbol of the self, for the self is not
just a static quantity or constant form, but is also a dynamic
process. In the same way, the ancients saw the imago Dei in man
not as a mere imprint, as a sort of lifeless, stereotyped impres-
sion, but as an active force. The four transformations represent
a process of restoration or rejuvenation taking place, as it were,
inside the self, and comparable to the carbon-nitrogen cycle in
the sun, when a carbon nucleus captures four protons (two of
which immediately become neutrons) and releases them at the
end of the cycle in the form of an alpha particle. The carbon
nucleus itself comes out of the reaction unchanged, "like the
Phoenix from the ashes." 108 The secret of existence, i.e., the
existence of the atom and its components, may well consist in a
continually repeated process of rejuvenation, and one comes to

107 [Cf. Thus Spake Zarathustra, trans, by Common, pp. 303^.— Editors.]

108 Gamow, Atomic Energy, p. 72.

260

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

similar conclusions in trying to account for the numinosity of
the archetypes.

4>2 I am fully aware of the extremely hypothetical nature of this
comparison, but I deem it appropriate to entertain such reflec-
tions even at the risk of being deceived by appearances. Sooner
or later nuclear physics and the psychology of the unconscious
will draw closer together as both of them, independently of one
another and from opposite directions, push forward into tran-
scendental territory, the one with the concept of the atom, the
other with that of the archetype.

4!3 The analogy with physics is not a digression since the sym-
bolical schema itself represents the descent into matter and
requires the identity of the outside with the inside. Psyche can-
not be totally different from matter, for how otherwise could it
move matter? And matter cannot be alien to psyche, for how else
could matter produce psyche? Psyche and matter exist in one
and the same world, and each partakes of the other, otherwise
any reciprocal action would be impossible. If research could
only advance far enough, therefore, we should arrive at an ulti-
mate agreement between physical and psychological concepts.
Our present attempts may be bold, but I believe they are on the
right lines. Mathematics, for instance, has more than once
proved that its purely logical constructions which transcend all
experience subsequently coincided with the behaviour of things.
This, like the events I call synchronistic, points to a profound
harmony between all forms of existence.

4»4 Since analogy formation is a law which to a large extent gov-
erns the life of the psyche, we may fairly conjecture that our—
to all appearances— purely speculative construction is not a new
invention, but is prefigured on earlier levels of thought. Gen-
erally speaking, these prefigurations can be found in the multi-
farious stages of the mystic transformation process, as well as in
the different degrees of initiation into the mysteries. We also
find them in the classical as well as Christian trichotomy con-
sisting of the pneumatic, the psychic, and the hylic. One of the
most comprehensive attempts of this kind is the sixteenfold
schema in the Book of Platonic Tetralogies.109 I have dealt with

109 An anonymous Harranite treatise entitled "Platonis liber quartorum," printed
in Theatr. chem., V (1622), pp. 1 i4ff.; conjectured to have been translated from the
Arabic in the 12 th cent.

26l

AION

this in detail in Psychology and Alchemy and can therefore limit
myself here to the basic points. The schematization and analogy-
formation start from four first principles: 1. the work of nature,
2. water, 3. composite natures, 4. the senses. Each of these four
starting-points has three stages of transformation, which to-
gether with the first stage make sixteen parts in all. But besides
this fourfold horizontal division of each of the principles, each
stage has its correspondence in the vertical series:

III

Opus naturalium

Aqua

Naturae compositae

Sensus

Divisio naturae

Terra

Naturae discretae

Discretio intellectualis

Anima

Aer

Simplicia

Ratio

Intellectus

Ignis

Aetheris simplicioris

Arcanum

4»5 This table of correspondences shows the various aspects of
the opus alchemicum, which was also bound up with astrology
and the so-called necromantic arts. This is evident from the use
of significant numbers and the invocation or conjuring up of the
familiar spirit. Similarly, the age-old art of geomancy no is based
on a sixteen-part schema: four central figures (consisting of Sub-
or Superiudex, Iudex, and two Testes), four nepotes (grand-
sons), four sons, four mothers. (The series is written from right
to left.) These figures are arranged in a schema of astrological
houses, but the centre that is empty in the horoscope is replaced
by a square containing the four central figures.

416 Athanasius Kircher111 produced a quaternity system that is
worth mentioning in this connection:

I. Unum = Monas monadike = Deus = Radix omnium = Mens sim-
plicissima = Divina essentia = Exemplar divinum.

(The One = First Monad r= God = Root of all things = Simplest
understanding = Divine Essence = Divine Exemplar.)

II. 10 (1 + 2 + 3+4 = I0) — Secunda Monas = dekadike = Dyas =:
Mundus intellectualis = Angelica intelligentia = Compositio ab uno et
altero = i.e., ex oppositis.

no Fludd, "De animae intellectualis scientia seu Geomantia," Fasciculus geoman-
ticus (1687), pp. 35f.

in Arithmologia, sive De abditis numerorum mysteriis (1665), PP- 26off. I have
to thank Dr. M.-L. von Franz for calling my attention to this.

262

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

(. . . Second Monad = tenth = duality = spiritual world = intel-
ligence of the angels = composition of the One and the Other = i.e., from
opposites.)

III. io2 = ioo = Tertia Monas = hekatontadike = Anima = Intelli-
gentia.

(. . . Third Monad =z hundredth = soul = intelligence.)

IV. 10s = 1000 = Quarta Monas = chiliadike = Omnia sensibilia =
Corpus = ultima et sensibilis Unionum explicatio.

(. . . Fourth Monad = thousandth = all concrete things = body =
final and concrete unfolding of unities.)

Kircher comments that whereas the senses affect only the
body, the first three unities are objects of understanding. So if
one wants to understand what is perceived by the senses (sensi-
bilia), this can only be done through the mind. "Everything
perceived by the senses must therefore be elevated to reason or to
the intelligence or to absolute unity. When in this way we shall
have brought the absolute unity back to the infinitely simple
from all perceptible, rational or intellectual multiplicity, then
nothing more remains to be said, and then the Stone too is not
so much a Stone as no Stone, but everything is the simplest unity.
And even as the absolute unity of that concrete and rational
Stone has God for an exemplar, so likewise its intellectual unity
is the intelligence. You can see from these unities how the per-
ceiving senses go back to reason, and reason to intelligence, and
intelligence to God, where in a perfect cycle is found the begin-
ning and the consummation." 112 That Kircher should choose
the lapis as an example of concrete things and of God's unity is
obvious enough in terms of alchemy, because the lapis is the ar-
canum that contains God or that part of God which is hidden in
matter.

Kircher's system shows certain affinities with our series of
quaternios. Thus the Second Monad is a duality consisting of
opposites, corresponding to the angelic world that was split by
Lucifer's fall. Another significant analogy is that Kircher con-
ceives his schema as a cycle set in motion by God as the prime
cause, and unfolding out of itself, but brought back to God
again through the activity of human understanding, so that the
end returns once more to the beginning. This, too, is an analogy

112 ibid., p. 266. [The next sentence is revised and transposed from par. 418. (2nd
edn.)]

263

AION

of our formula. The alchemists were fond of picturing their
opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the
uroboros, the snake biting its own tail, and they made innumer-
able pictures of this process. Just as the central idea of the lapis
Philosophorum plainly signifies the self, so the opus with its
countless symbols illustrates the process of individuation, the
step-by-step development of the self from an unconscious state
to a conscious one. That is why the lapis, as prima materia,
stands at the beginning of the process as well as at the end.113
According to Michael Maier, the gold, another synonym for the
self, comes from the opius circulatorium of the sun. This circle is
"the line that runs back upon itself (like the serpent that with
its head bites its own tail), wherein that eternal painter and
potter, God, may be discerned." 114 In this circle, Nature "has
related the four qualities to one another and drawn, as it were,
an equilateral square, since contraries are bound together by
contraries, and enemies by enemies, with the same everlasting
bonds." Maier compares this squaring of the circle to the "homo
quadratus," the four-square man, who "remains himself" come
weal come woe.115 He calls it the "golden house, the twice-
bisected circle, the four-cornered phalanx, the rampart, the city
wall, the four-sided line of battle." 116 This circle is a magic
circle consisting of the union of opposites, "immune to all
injury."

4*9 Independently of Western tradition, the same idea of the
circular opus can be found in Chinese alchemy: "When the
light is made to move in a circle, all the energies of heaven and
earth, of the light and the dark, are crystallized," says the text
of the Golden Flower.117

420 The opyavov kvk\lk6v, the circular apparatus that assists the cir-
cular process, is mentioned as early as Olympiodorus.118 Dorn is
of the opinion that the "circular movement of the Physio-
chemists" comes from the earth, the lowest element. For the fire
originates in the earth and transforms the finer minerals and
water into air, which, rising up to the heavens, condenses there

113 Documentation in Psychology and Alchemy, esp. pars. 427, n. 4, and 431.

114 De circulo physico quadrato, p. 16. H5 Ibid., p. 17.
lie Ibid., p. 19.

117 Wilhelm, The Secret of the Golden Flower (1962 edn.), p. 30.

118 Berthelot, Alch. grecs, II, iv, 44.

264

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF

and falls down again. But during their ascent the volatilized ele-
ments take "from the higher stars male seeds, which they bring
down into the four matrices, the elements, in order to fertilize
them spagyrically." This is the "circular distillation" 119 which
Rupescissa says must be repeated a thousand times.120
4*1 The basic idea of ascent and descent can be found in the
Tabula smaragdina, and the stages of transformation have been
depicted over and over again, above all in the Ripley "Scrowle"
and its variants. These should be understood as indirect at-
tempts to apprehend the unconscious processes of individuation
in the form of pictures.

119 "Physica genesis," Theatr. chem., I, p. 391.

120 La Vertu et la propriiti de la quinte essence, p. s6.

265

CONCLUSION

422 I have tried, in this book, to elucidate and amplify the vari-
ous aspects of the archetype which it is most important for mod-
ern man to understand— namely, the archetype of the self. By way
of introduction, I described those concepts and archetypes which
manifest themselves in the course of any psychological treat-
ment that penetrates at all deeply. The first of these is the
shadow, that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and
guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back
into the realm of our animal ancestors and so comprise the whole
historical aspect of the unconscious. Through analysis of the
shadow and of the processes contained in it we uncover the
anima/animus syzygy. Looked at superficially, the shadow is cast
by the conscious mind and is as much a privation of light as the
physical shadow that follows the body. For this superficial view,
therefore, the psychological shadow with its moral inferiority
might also be regarded as a privation of good. On closer inspec-
tion, however, it proves to be a darkness that hides influential
and autonomous factors which can be distinguished in their own
right, namely anima and animus. When we observe them in full
operation— as the devastating, blindly obstinate demon of opin-
ionatedness in a woman, and the glamorous, possessive, moody,
and sentimental seductress in a man— we begin to doubt whether
the unconscious can be merely the insubstantial comet's tail of
consciousness and nothing but a privation of light and good.

423 If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was
the source of all evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investi-
gation that the unconscious man, that is, his shadow, does not
consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also dis-
plays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts,
appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses, etc.
On this level of understanding, evil appears more as a distortion,
a deformation, a misinterpretation and misapplication of facts

266

CONCLUSION

that in themselves are natural. These falsifications and carica-
tures now appear as the specific effects of anima and animus, and
the latter as the real authors of evil. But we cannot stop even at
this realization, for it turns out that all archetypes spontaneously
develop favourable and unfavourable, light and dark, good and
bad effects. In the end we have to acknowledge that the self is
a complexio oppositorum precisely because there can be no
reality without polarity. We must not overlook the fact that
opposites acquire their moral accentuation only within the
sphere of human endeavour and action, and that we are unable
to give a definition of good and evil that could be considered
universally valid. In other words, we do not know what good
and evil are in themselves. It must therefore be supposed that
they spring from a need of human consciousness and that for
this reason they lose their validity outside the human sphere.
That is to say a hypostasis of good and evil as metaphysical en-
tities is inadmissible because it would deprive these terms of
meaning. If we call everything that God does or allows "good,"
then evil is good too, and "good" becomes meaningless. But
suffering, whether it be Christ's passion or the suffering of the
world, remains the same as before. Stupidity, sin, sickness, old
age, and death continue to form the dark foil that sets off the
joyful splendour of life.

The recognition of anima and animus is a specific experience
that seems to be reserved mostly, or at any rate primarily, for
psychotherapists. Nevertheless, anyone who has a little knowl-
edge of belles-lettres will have no difficulty in forming a picture
of the anima; she is a favourite subject for novelists, particularly
west of the Rhine.1 Nor is a careful study of dreams always neces-
sary. It is not quite so easy to recognize the woman's animus, for
his name is legion. But anyone who can stand the animosity of
his fellows without being infected by it, and is capable at the
same time of examining it critically, cannot help discovering
that they are possessed. It is, however, more advantageous and
more to the point to subject to the most rigorous scrutiny one's
own moods and their changing influence on one's personality.
To know where the other person makes a mistake is of little
value. It only becomes interesting when you know where you

1 The outstanding example in Swiss literature is Spitteler's Imago. [In English
literature, perhaps Rider Haggard's She.— Editors.]

267

AION

make the mistake, for then you can do something about it. What
we can improve in others is of doubtful utility as a rule, if,
indeed, it has any effect at all.

425 Although, to begin with, we meet the anima and animus
mostly in their negative and unwelcome form, they are very far
from being only a species of bad spirit. They have, as we have
said, an equally positive aspect. Because of their numinous, sug-
gestive power they have formed since olden times the archetypal
basis of all masculine and feminine divinities and therefore
merit special attention, above all from the psychologist, but also
from thoughtful laymen. As numina, anima and animus work
now for good, now for evil. Their opposition is that of the sexes.
They therefore represent a supreme pair of opposites, not hope-
lessly divided by logical contradiction but, because of the mu-
tual attraction between them, giving promise of union and
actually making it possible. The coniunctio oppositorum en-
gaged the speculations of the alchemists in the form of the
"Chymical Wedding," and those of the cabalists in the form of
Tifereth and Malchuth or God and the Shekhinah,2 not to speak
of the marriage of the Lamb.

426 The dual being born of the alchemical union of opposites,
the Rebis or Lapis Philosophorum, is so distinctively marked in
the literature that we have no difficulty in recognizing it as a
symbol of the self. Psychologically the self is a union of con-
scious (masculine) and unconscious (feminine). It stands for the
psychic totality. So formulated, it is a psychological concept.
Empirically, however, the self appears spontaneously in the
shape of specific symbols, and its totality is discernible above all
in the mandala and its countless variants. Historically, these
symbols are authenticated as God-images.

427 The anima/animus stage is correlated with polytheism, the
self with monotheism.3 The natural archetypal symbolism, de-
scribing a totality that includes light and dark, contradicts in
some sort the Christian but not the Jewish or Yahwistic view-
point, or only to a relative degree. The latter seems to be closer
to Nature and therefore to be a better reflection of immediate
experience. Nevertheless, the Christian heresiarchs tried to sail

2 Hurwitz, "Archetypische Motive in der chassidischen Mystik," ch. VI.

3 This thema is the subject of an Oxford dissertation by Amy I. Allenby: A Psy-
chological Study of the Origins of Monotheism.

268

CONCLUSION

round the rocks of Manichaean dualism, which was such a dan-
ger to the early Church, in a way that took cognizance of the
natural symbol, and among the symbols for Christ there are
some very important ones which he has in common with the
devil, though this had no influence on dogma.

By far the most fruitful attempts, however, to find suitable
symbolic expressions for the self were made by the Gnostics.
Most of them— Valentinus and Basilides, for instance— were in
reality theologians who, unlike the more orthodox ones, allowed
themselves to be influenced in large measure by natural inner
experience. They are therefore, like the alchemists, a veritable
mine of information concerning all those natural symbols aris-
ing out of the repercussions of the Christian message. At the
same time, their ideas compensate the asymmetry of God pos-
tulated by the doctrine of the privatio boni, exactly like those
well-known modern tendencies of the unconscious to produce
symbols of totality for bridging the gap between the conscious
and the unconscious, which has widened dangerously to the
point of universal disorientation.

I am well aware that this work, far from being complete, is
a mere sketch showing how certain Christian ideas look when
observed from the standpoint of psychological experience. Since
my main concern was to point out the parallelism or the differ-
ence between the empirical findings and our traditional views,
a consideration of the disparities due to time and language
proved unavoidable. This was particularly so in the case of the
fish symbol. Inevitably, we move here on uncertain ground and
must now and then have recourse to a speculative hypothesis
or tentatively- reconstruct a context. Naturally every investi-
gator must document his findings as fully as possible, but he
should also venture an occasional hypothesis even at the risk
of making a mistake. Mistakes are, after all, the foundations
of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at
least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

269

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The items of the bibliography are arranged alphabetically under
two headings: A. Ancient volumes containing collections of alchemi-
cal tracts by various authors; B. General bibliography, including
cross-references to the material in section A. Short titles of the
ancient volumes are printed in capital letters.

A. ANCIENT VOLUMES CONTAINING

COLLECTIONS OF ALCHEMICAL TRACTS

BY VARIOUS AUTHORS

ARS CHEMICA, quod sit licita recte exercentibus, probationes doc-
tissimorum iurisconsultorum. . . . Argentorati [Strasbourg], 1566.

Contents quoted in this volume:

i Septem tractatus seu capitula Hermetis Trismegisti aurei

[pp. 7-31; usually referred to as "Tractatus aureus"]
ii Tabula smaragdina [pp. 32-33]

ARTIS AURIFERAE quam chemiam vocant. . . . Basileae [Basel],
[*593]- 2 vols.

Contents quoted in this volume:

VOLUME I

i Turba philosophorum [two versions: pp. 1-65, 66-139]

i-a Allegoriae super librum Turbae [pp. 139-45]

ii Aenigmata ex Visione Arislei philosophi et allegoriis sapi-
entum [pp. 146-54; usually referred to as "Visio Arislei"]

iii In Turbam philosophorum exercitationes [pp. 154-82]

iv Aurora consurgens, quae dicitur Aurea hora [pp. 185-246]

v [Zosimus]: Rosinus ad Sarratantam episcopum [pp. 277-319]

vi Maria Prophetissa: Practica ... in artem alchemicam [pp.

3 1 9-24]

273

BIBLIOGRAPHY

vii Tractatulus Aristotelis de practica lapidis philosophici [pp.

36l"73]
viii Interpretatio cuiusdam epistolae Alexandri Macedonum

regis [pp. 382-88]

ix Tractatulus Avicennae [pp. 405-37]

VOLUME 11

x Morienus Romanus: Sermo de transmutatione metallica [pp.

7-54]
xi Rosarium philosophorum [pp. 204-384]

Mangetus, Joannes Jacobus (ed.). BIBLIOTHECA CHEMICA
CURIOSA, seu Rerum ad alchemiam pertinentium thesaurus in-
structissimus . . . Coloniae Allobrogum [Geneva], 1702. 2 vols.

Contents quoted in this volume:

volume 1

i Allegoriae sapientum supra librum Turbae philosophorum

XXIX distinctiones [pp. 467-79]
ii Turba philosophorum [pp. 445-65; another version, pp.

480-94]
iii Allegoriae supra librum Turbae [pp. 494-95]

MUSAEUM HERMETICUM reformatum et amplificatum . . .
continens tractatus chimicos XXI praestantissimos . . . Franco-
furti [Frankfurt a. M.], 1678. For translation, see (B) Waite, The
Hermetic Museum.

Contents quoted in this volume:

i [Barcius (F. von Sternberg)]: Gloria mundi, alias Paradysi

tabula [pp. 203-304]
ii Lambspringk: De lapide philosophico figurae et emblemata

^ [PP- 337-72]
iii Sendivogius: Novum lumen chemicum e naturae fonte et

manuali experientia depromptum [pp. 545-600]
iv [Sendivogius:] Novi luminis chemici Tractatus alter de sul-

phure [pp. 601-46]
v Philalethes: Introitus apertus ad occlusum regis palatium

[pp. 647-700]
vi Philalethes: Metallorum metamorphosis [pp. 741-74]

274

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THEATRUM CHEMICUM, praecipuos selectorum auctorum
tractatus . . . continens. Ursellis [Ursel] and Argentorati [Stras-
bourg], 1602-61. 6 vols. (Vols. I— III, Ursel, 1602; Vols. IV-VI,
Strasbourg, 1613, 1622, 1661 respectively.)

Contents quoted in this volume:

volume 1

i Fanianus: De arte metallicae metamorphoseos ad Philo-

ponum [pp. 28-48]
ii Hoghelande: Liber de alchemiae difficultatibus [pp. 121-

sis]

iii Dorn: Ars chemistica [pp. 217-54]

iv Dorn: Speculativae philosophiae, gradus septem vel decern

continens [pp. 255-310]
v Dorn: Physica genesis [pp. 367-404]
v-a Dorn: Physica Trismegisti [pp. 405-37]
vi Dorn: Philosophia meditativa [pp. 450-72]
vii Dorn: Philosophia chemica ad meditativam comparata

[pp. 472-5 1 7]
viii Dorn: Congeries Paracelsicae chemicae de transmuta-
tionibus metallorum [pp. 557-646]
ix Bernardus Trevisanus: Liber de alchemia [pp. 773-803]

VOLUME 11
x Ripley: Duodecim portarum axiomata philosophica [pp.

123-39]
xi Hollandus: Fragmentum de lapide [pp. 142-46]

xii Dee: Monas hieroglyphica [pp. 218-43]

VOLUME III

xiii Aristoteles de perfecto Magisterio [pp. 56-118]

VOLUME IV

xiv Artefius: Clavis maioris sapientiae [pp. 221-40]
xv Duodecim tractatus de lapide philosophorum [pp. 478-

5°2]
xvi Beatus: Aurelia occulta philosophorum [pp. 525-81]
xvii Hermetis Trismegisti Tractatus vere aureus de lapide
philosophici secreto [pp. 672-797; usually referred to as
"Tractatus aureus"]

275

BIBLIOGRAPHY

VOLUME V

xvii-a Turba philosophorum [pp. 1-57]
xviii Allegoriae sapientum et distinctiones XXIX supra librum
Turbae [pp. 64-100]
xix Platonis liber quartorum [pp. 114-208]
xx Tractatus Aristotelis alchymistae ad Alexandrum Mag-
num de lapide philosophico [pp. 880-92]

VOLUME VI

xxi Blaise de Vigenere: Tractatus de igne et sale [pp. 1-139]
xxii Collesson: Idea perfecta philosophiae hermeticae [pp.

143-61]
xxiii Fidelissima et jucunda instructio de arbore solari [pp.

163-194]
xxiv Grasseus: Area arcani artificiosissimi de summis naturae

mysteriis [pp. 294-381]
xxv [Barchius:] Summa libri quae vocatur Gloria mundi, seu

Tabula comprehensa [pp. 513-17]
xxvi Chartier: Scientia plumbi sacri sapientum [pp. 569-99]

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300

INDEX

In entries relating to the books of the Bible, the numbers in parentheses
indicate the chapter and verse(s) referred to.

Aaron, 107, 228

abaissement du niveau mental, 28,

202
Abarbanel, Isaac, 74, 107
Abba, Rabbi, 80
Abercius inscription, 73, 89ft, 103,

ablution, 187

Abot de Rabbi Nathan, 113ft

Abraham, 59

Abraham ben Hiyya, Rabbi, 74

Abu Ma'shar/Abu Mansor, see

Albumasar
accentuation, moral, of opposites,

70
acetum, 160; see also vinegar
Achamoth, see Sophia
act of God, 25
Acts of the Apostles, (2 : 3), 135ft;

(7 : 43). 75"; (17 : 29> 30), 19m
Acts of Thomas, see Thomas, Acts

of
Adam, 199; Adam/Eve syzygy, 254;
carries Eve with him, 206; Christ
and, 39, 197, 232; Eve's birth
from, 205/; first and second, 37;
higher, 197, 214, 232, 237, 240,
248, 255; — , and lower, 227,
233; lower, 244, 255; male/female,
204; mystic, 36; original man/
Anthropos/Archanthropos, 200,
203, 208, 218ft; relation to creator
and creatures, 189; as "rock," 88,
208; second, 201, 204; and ser-
pent, 233, 244/

Adamantius, dialogue of, 54*1

Adamas (arch-man), 208

adamas (steel), 161

Adam Scotus, 100/

adaptation, weak, and emotion, 9

Adar, month of, 119

Adech, 213

Adler, Alfred, 165

Adonis, 121, 199

"Aenigmata ex Visione Arislei,"

126, 12772, 137-38, 142
Aeon: Autopator as, 191; birth from

Kore, 104
aeon, Christian, ix
"aes Hermetis," 156
Aesculapius, serpent of, 245ft
affects, 9; and anima/animus, 16;

feeling-tone, 33
Africa, 96, 175
agape, 90
Agathodaimon, 186; serpent as, 188,

230, 245ft
ages, two, in pseudo-Clement, 55
aggregation, states of, 250/, 257
dyvoia, 191

ayvuxTia, 190-92, 193ft; God's, 194
Ailly, Pierre d', 75ft, 76ft, 77ft, 82,

®3> 96> 97» 9%n> 99

Aipolos, 216

air, 249

Akathriel, 60

albedo, 148, 235

Albertus Magnus, 7772, 80ft, 87, 256

Albigenses, 150

Albumasar (Ja'far ibn Muhammad
[Abu Ma'shar] al-Balkhi), 75, 76-
78ftft, 80ft, 95ft, 96, 97, 99

303

INDEX

alchemy/alchemists, 89 et passim;
beginnings of, 173; Catharism
and, 150; Chinese, 264; and
Christ, 182; Christ-image in, 67;
compensation in, 124; conjunction
of opposites in, 40; dragon in,
120; eagle in, 64/2; fish in, 126/f;
Latin, beginnings of, 87; motive
of, 171; and natural science, 176;
Negroes in, 210; pagan currents
in, 176; phenomenology of sym-
bols in, 179; physical speculations
of, 249/?; quaternio in, 232/f; rise
of, 150; significance of matter in,
66; and "theoria," 179; uncon-
scious in, 142

Alciati, Andrea, 158

alcohol, 225

alembics, three, 241

Alexandria, 89, 104, 15671

Alexius Comnenus, 148

"Allegoriae sapientum supra librum
Turbae," 126

"Allegoriae super librum Turbae,"
12571, 126, 12771

allegories, see symbols

Allenby, Amy Ingeborg, 26871

Almaricus, see Amalric of Bene

Amalric of Bene, 83

ambivalence, 13; of fish symbol,

Ambrose, St., 88, 23572

Amen, 206

Amitabha land, vision of, 15 m

Amon, 78

Amoraim, 8on

Amos, Book of, (5 : 26), 74/

Anacreon, beaker of, 211

analogy formation, 261

analysis, 260

anamnesis, 40, 180

Andrew, St., 89

androgyny, of Christ, 204, 205

angels, 146, 195

Angelus Silesius, 206

Anger, Rudolph, 7471

Ani, Papyrus of, 7672

anima, 8, 10, i%ff, 30/, 187, 266; and
Eros, 14; feeling-value of, 28;
liberty as, 30; Miriam as, 210,
228; novelists and, 267; personi-
fication of unconscious, nn; pos-
session by, 23; see also anima/
animus

anima/animus: appearance of con-
tents, 19; cannot be integrated,
20; effects on ego, 16/; fear of,
33; feeling-value of, 28; as func-
tions, 20; positive aspect, 268;
recognition of, 22, 267; relation
to each other, 15

anima Christiana, 36

anima mundi, 136, 142, 160, 198,
242

anima rationalis, 38/, 21272

anima rerum, 157-5871

animals, helpful, 145, 186

animosity, 16, 267

animus, 8, 10, 14/f, 30/, 33, 266,
267; and logos, 14, 16, 21; posi-
tive aspect of, 16; see also anima/
animus

annunciation, of Christ-figure, 189

Anthropos, 246, 247, 259; Christ as,
204; figures, ix, 65, 204; Gnostic,
197/; — , names of, 189; and
Hermes, 230; king as, 198; ser-
pent/snake and, 232/; symbol for
God, 195; vessel as counterpart
of, 242; see also Adam; Archan-
thropos; Man, original; Protan-
thropos

Anthropos quaternio, 231, 233, 244,

254
Anthropus primus, Saturn as, 197
Antichrist, ix, 36, 61, 62, 63, 94,
106; astrological origin, 76; astro-
logical prediction of, 99; as half
archetype of self, 44; as King of
the Jews, 7972, 107; Nostradamus
on, 101; problem of, 42/; prophe-
cies of, 109; second, 96, 102; as
shadow of self, 42, 44
antimimon pneuma, 35, 42

304

INDEX

Antony, Mark, 144

Anu, 124

Apelles, 75

Apep, 76

Aphrodite, 21, 104, 112, 217

Apocalypse, ix, 36, 90, 105-6, 110;
see also Revelation of St. John

apocatastasis, 40, 169, 259

Apollo, 81, 252

Apollonius of Tyana, 12672

Apophis-serpent, 230

apperception, 169

aqua, 160; abyssi, 215; doctrinae,
159, 180, 185, 187, 188, 215, 241;
permanens, 88, 150, 158, 18772,
235, 23971, 241; roris nostri, 158

Aquarius (£?), 82, 87, 91, 92, 93

Aquilo, 100, 125

Arab tradition, fish in, 123

Aratus, 9272

arcane substance/araz/iwm, 152, 157,
159, 160, 163, 18771; artifex as,
155; fishes as, 150; healing power
of, 180; called lapis, 236; mag-
nesia as, 156; in man and with-
out, 162; refers to self, 145

Archanthropos, 197, 203, 209; see
also Adam\ Anthropos; Man, or-
iginal; Protanthropos

Archegonos, 20172

archetic appetite, 133, 134

archetype(s), 8, 16/, et passim; in
art history, 68; assimilation of,
222; autonomous factors, 21; de-
notes completeness, 68; good and
bad effects of, 267; image of in-
stinct, 179; numinosity of, 18472,
196; self as, 167, 169; of the Spirit,
85; totality of, 196; unconscious
organizers of our ideas, 179; see
also anima; animus; brothers,
hostile; Christ; God-man; mar-
riage quaternio; mother, chthon-
ic; mother-son marriage; Re-
deemer; self; shadow; spirit of
gravity; wholeness; wise old man

Archeus, 13372, 213

archon(s): Christ and, 65; demiurge,
190; of future/this Aeon, 254;
Gnostic, 57, 230; Ialdabaoth, 75,
208; Sabaoth, 76

argument, animus and, 15

Aries (f), 7472, 82, 9072, 98, 103;
see also Ram

Arisleus, 143; vision of, 13072; — ,
see also "Aenigmata ex Visione
Arislei"

"Aristoteles de perfecto Magisterio,"
156

Aristotle, 51

Armilus, 107

Ars chemica, 18772

art, history of, archetype in, 68

Artefius, 13272

Artis aurijerae, 12672, 130/2, 19772,
23872, 24072, 24172

"as if," 203

ascendent, 8272, 148

ascension, 65

Ascension of Isaiah, 57

aspersion, 187

ass, 75/

assimilation, 189; ego/self, 24/; by
projection-making factor, 24

Assumptio Mariae, see Mary

assumptions, 15

Astarte, 112

astrology, 262; Fishes in, 111; Ori-
ental, 93; Saturn in, 75/f

Atargatis, 73, 104, 111, 112, 121

atheism, 109

Athens: Little Metropolis, 91; St.
Paul and, 176, 191

atman, 32, 69, 144, 167, 194, 222

atom, 237, 242, 249, 260

attention, 24

Attis, 213, 21777; as Ichthys, 15272;
"holy shepherd," 8972; polymor-
phous, 199; Shepherd and, 103

Augurellus, Joannes Aurelius, 23271

Augustine, St., 38-40^7172, 46, 49-51,
52, 7272, 7971, 80, 9072, 100, 113,
120, 147, 158, 182

Augustus, 144

305

INDEX

Aurelia occulta, 18771

Aurora consurgens, 88tj, 156/1, 22071,
23872, 239n> H1

aurum nostrum, 127

Authades, 19771

authority, inner, 25-26

autism, 9

autoerotism, projections and, 9

Autogenes, 19771

autonomy: of anima/animus, 20, 28;
of archetypes, 21; of character-
istics of shadow, 8

Autopator, 190/

Autun, 89

avatar, 176

Aztecs, 144

Baal, 119

Baba Bathra, see Talmud

Baba Kamma, see Talmud

Babylon, 121

Babylonian tradition, 124

Bacchus, 199

Bacon, Roger, 87, 97, 256

Bactria, 74

Bahman Yast, 108

Balaam, 59, 117

Balak, 59

baptism, 89, 90, 1 88; see also font

Barabbas, 91

barbel, 122

Barbelo, 195, 19771; Barbelo-Gnosis,

19671, 19771
Bardesanes, 54

Bar-Kuni, see Theodor Bar-Kuni
Baruch, Apocalypse of, 115, 116,

118
Basil the Great, St., 46-48, 82, 129
Basilides/Basilidians, 64, 66, 18571,

190, 230, 23472, 269
Basilius (Bogomil bishop), 148
bath kol, 106
Baubo, chthonic, 13
Bauer, Walter, 21371

bear, as symbol, 226

Bear, Great, see Great Bear

Beasts, Lady of the, 116

Beatus, Giorgius, 18771

beetle, 226

Beghards, 84, 150

Beguins, 150

Behemoth, 11571, 118, 120, 121, 123,

14771; battle with Leviathan, 80,

118; eucharistic food, 116
being, in God, 193
Belinus, 12671
beloved, 12, 13
Benat na'sh, 124
Benedict, St., 82-83, 85
Benoist, Jean, 145
Berakoth, see Talmud
Bereshith Rabba(ti), 5972, 106
Bernard of Clairvaux, St., 125
Bernardus Trevisanus, 143, 23971
Berthelot, Marcellin, 6571, 12771,

14371, 15671, 15971, 23871, 26472
Bethlehem, 106
Bible, Protestants and, 178
bin, 121
bird(s): allegory of Christ, 72; two

fighting, 150; white and black,

226
body, 64-65; in Basilides, 66
body/spirit triads, 55
Bogomils, 58, 147, 150
Bohme, Jakob, 61, 125, 171, 25271
Boll, Franz Johannes, 8172, 9072,

9172, 10472, 105
Bouch£-Leclercq, Auguste, 7572, 7672,

8 172, 10472, 11272

Bousset, Wilhelm, 7572, 10872, 109,

19772, 19872, 2o8n, 21972, 22072

Brahe, Tycho, 8172

brahman, 222

"Bread through God," 84

breasts, Christ's, 205

Brethren of the Free Spirit, 84, 150

brh, 119

Brihaddranyaka Upanishad, 223

Brimos, 217

brother-sister pair, 31, 210

306

INDEX

brothers, hostile, Son, 81, 87, 254;

monsters as, 119
Brugsch, Heinrich, 207/2
Buddha, symbol for God, 195
Buddhism, 136; and yoga, 176; see

also Zen
Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, 88/1,

122/2., 123, 207n

bull: Behemoth as, 120; Mithras
and, 124; one-horned, 199; as
symbol, 226

Bundahish, 246/1

Cabala/cabalism/cabalists, 58, 61,

125, 173, 218/2, 268
Cabiros/Cabiri, 201, 212
Cabrol, Fernand, and Leclercq,

Henri, 89/1
Caesarius of Heisterbach, 239/1
calendar, revolutionary, 98
Caligula, 144
Campbell, Colin, 198
Cana, miracle of, 211
Canopic jars, 122
Canticles, see Song of Solomon
Capricorn (y$) ,92, 111
caput corvi, 210
carbon-nitrogen cycle, 260
Carcassonne, 145

Cardan, Jerome, 76/2, 77/1, 82, 95/2
Carthage, 121
Cams, Paul, 6
Cassino, Monte, 83
castle, as symbol, 224
Castor, 81
cat, black, 30
Cathari/Cathars, 58, 83, 146^; and

alchemy, 150
causation, psychological, 62
causes, 165

Caussin, Nicholas, 128, 192
Celsus, 75
centre, 224; in alchemy, 169; in

man, and God-image, 171; in one-

self and environment, 170; in
Plotinus, 219; psychic and al-
chemical, 171

cerebellum, "Son" and, 186

cerebrum, "Father" and, 186

Chaldaeans, 111

chalybs, 132

chaos, 79, 148, 155, 194, 234, 236-
37; and cosmos, 32; magnesia as,
156; see also massa confusa

Charles, R. H., 115/2, 118/2, 147/2

Chartier, Jean, 139/2

chemical processes, alchemy and,

157
cherub/cherubim, 123, 241
child: divine, 31; symbol for God,

195

China: circular opus in, 264;
dragon symbolism in, 245; re-
ligions of, 70

"chirographum," 230 & n

Chiun, 74, 75/2

choice: four elements and, 56; free,

5
Christ, 32, 255; and age of fishes,
92, 114; as Anthropos, 204; and
Antichrist, 61, 115; archetype of
self, 37; — of wholeness, x, 40;
assimilation into psyche, 221;
attributes of, and self, 44; as
avatar of Vishnu, 176; childhood
of, 103; common symbols with
devil, 72; and contents of uncon-
scious, 181; death of, 35; descent
into hell, 39; dualistic aspects,
111; both ego and self, 110; as
fish, see fish(es); and horoscope,
136-37; horoscopes of, 77/2; hu-
man soul of, 39; as inner man,
203; as king and priest, 39, 147;
lamb and, 105-6; male /female,
205; and Mary, in Gnostic legend,
202; as new aeon, 90; the perfect
man, 69; pre-existent, 148; as
quaternion of opposites, 63; as
rock, 88; scriptural symbols of,
221; second, 65; and self, parallel,

307

INDEX

Christ (cont.): pseudo-Clement, see Clementine

42, 44; and serpent, 186, 232; Homilies

and shadow, 4m, 110; spouse of Clementine Homilies, 54/f, 10m,

the Church, 21; subjective par- 19271, 254

allel of, 182; symbol for God, 195; cloud, 155

— of self, 36/f, 62n; synoptic and Cnidaria, 128

Johannine, 72; transfiguration of, Codex Ashburnham 1166, 232

i22n; "uncomeliness" of, 140; cognition, 61, 69

"within," 183; as younger son of collective unconscious, 7, 164, 223,

God, 57, 147; see also Adam; 234; archetypes and, 8; autonomy

androgyny; Ichthys

Christ-figure: annunciation of, 189;
significance of, 203-4

Christ-image: anthropomorphic, 67;
perfection of, 68-69

Christensen, Arthur, 7772, 24671

Christian doctrine: and nature, 173;
and the psyche, 174

Christianity: astrological origin, 76;
divine syzygy in, 21; Germanic
acceptance of, 175; myths under-
lying, 179; place in Western life,

175
Christmas Eve, 111
Chronos, 139

chthonic world, shadow and, 34
Church: as Bride of Christ/Lamb,
21, 204; as female, 2 in; in mod-
ern world, 176; soul as, 206; as
symbol, 224
Chwolsohn, Daniel, 75^ ig7n
cinedian fish/stone, 138-39
circle(s): character of wholeness,
224n; God as, 153; magic, 32; in
Maier, 264; soul as, 219; and

of, 20; dogma and, 174-75; and
mythology, 179

Collesson, Johannes, 160, 162

collision, of conscious and uncon-
scious, 194

colly Hum, 127

Colossians, Epistle to the, (2 : 14),
23on

commissure, 93, 148

compass, 134

Compendium theologicae veritatis,
Son

compensation: function of uncon-
scious, 20; in man and woman, 14

completeness: and perfection, 68,
69, 111; voluntary, 70; see also
wholeness

complexio oppositorum, 6m, 225,
267; see also coniunctio opposi-
torum

compulsion, 140; c. neurosis, 10

concept, 33; merely a name, 32;
metaphysical, 34

Concorricci, 83, 14671

concupiscentia, 112, 129

square /squaring of, 224-25, 239, confusion, 194

241, 264; squared, of self, 204; coniunctio, of Adam and Eve, 206

symbols, 194; — of God, 195; — ,

self in, 190
circumambulation, 224
citrinitas, 127
city: heavenly, 37; in Oxyrhynchus

sayings, 145; as symbol, 224
Clement of Alexandria, 22, H3n,

121, 222, 234n
Clement of Rome, 125; Second

Epistle to Corinthians, 2 in; for

coniunctio(nes) maxima(e), 82, 96,

97, 98, 111
coniunctio oppositorum, 31, 152,

159, 167, 268; see also opposites,

conjunction of
conscientiousness, 24
consciousness: in Autopator, 191;

broadening of, and opus, 148;

cannot comprehend whole, 110-

11; and causes and ends, 165;

308

INDEX

differentiation of, 191; and dis-
crimination, 260; ego and, 3, 24;
ego as subjective, 164; founded
on unconsciousness, 30; God-
image and, 194; limits of its field,
3; monsters and development of,
18 1; myths and coming of, 148;
relation of unconscious manifes-
tations to, 225; and splitting of
Original Man, 204; threshold of,
4; see also ego

consensus omnium j consensus gen-
eralis, 29, 30, 47, 178

constellations, 29

consummation of universe, 254

conversion, 40

copulation, 206; self-, 207

coral, 12571

Corinthians, First Epistle to, (5 : 2),
23^; (10 : 4), 88; (10 : 16), 11571;
(15 : 47), 3972; Second Epistle to
(Clement of Rome), 2in

Cornarius, 191

corpus mysticum, 32

correspondence: in opus alchemi-
cum, 262; principle of, 258; see
also synchronicity

cortex, 127, 137-38

corybants, 2 1 1

Corybas, see Korybas

cosmos, and chaos, 32; see also
chaos

Cramer, H., 21371

crazes, 169

creation: Heliopolitan story of, 207;
and opus, 148; of world by devil,
146

creator: as dreaming, 192; Gnostic
symbols for, 196

creed, 174, 179

crocodile, 244

cross, 6572, 182, 189; as quaternity
symbol, 204, 224; and snake, 7872;
as symbol of God, 195

crucifixion, 69, 70; punishment for
slaves, 7871

crystal, 224

culture hero, Christ as, 36
Cumont, Franz, gin, 11571, 121
Curetes, 211
Cybele, 121
Cyprian, St., 11 272
Cyranides, 138

Dactyls, 212

Dagon, 11572, 121

daimon(ion), 27, 199, 226

Damdad-Nashk, 24672

damnation, eternal, 6in

Daniel, Book of, 74; (2 : 34),
20872; (2 : 35), 20972; (2 : 45), 8872;
(3;24/)> 199; (3:25), 12372;
(11 : 36/f), 3672

Dardaris, 50

daughter, 12; and father, 14, 16

David, 79

dawn-state, 148

dealbatio, 148

Dee, John, 221

Degenhardus, 139

De Gubernatis, Angelo, 114

"De igne et sale," 13272

deliberation, 16

Demeter, 12

demiurge, 110, 230; Basilidian, 190;
devil as, 150, 232; Esaldaios, 208;
Gnostic, 150, 196, 197-98; igno-
rant, myth of, 189; Satanael as,
147-48; son of, 190

Democritus (alchemist), 14372, 159

Denderah, 7672, 91

Denzinger, Heinrich, and Bann-
wart, Klemens, 5272, 8372, 25372

Derceto, 73, 104, 111

descensus ad inferos, 39

Deus absconditus, 135

Deussen, Paul, 15272

Deuteronomy, (32 : 17), 107;

(32 : 39). 55
devaluation, of sexuality, 226

309

INDEX

devil: as Adversary, 42; his body
of fire, 132^; in Christian dogma,
124; counterpart of God, 61; as
demiurge, 150, 232; and evil, 48;
fourth person, 208; God ruling
world through, 254; in Joachim
of Flora, 86; Origen and fate of,
110; in Protestantism, 41; serpent
as, 188, 230; symbols, in common
with Christ, 72; world created by,
146; see also Satan

dharma, 21771

Didymus of Alexandria, 235/1

Dieterich, Albrecht, 89, 124ft

dilemma, of one and three, 195,
224, 225

din, 58

Diodoros (Megarian philosopher),
76ft

Diodorus, 76

Dionysius the Areopagite, 46, 49, 51

Dionysus, 81, 158

Diorphos, 121

Dioscorides, 156ft

Dioscorus, 159ft

Dioscuri, 81

Diotima, 27

discrimination, 121, 258, 260; of the
natures, 79

distillation, circular, 265

disturbance, symptoms of, 29

divisio, 168, 187; see also separatio

doctrinairism, 86

doctrine, Christian, see Christian
doctrine

Doelger, Franz Josef, 73, 89, 113ft,
114ft, J15> J2i

dog, 150

dogma(s), 169, 174-75; barbarian
peoples and, 175; "belief" in, 178;
believers and, 178ft; drift from,
179; prejudice against, 175; rea-
son for insistence on, 179; and
"sacred history," 179; see also
doctrine

Dominican order, 83

Domitian, 110

Dorn, Gerhard, 157, 159, 160-64,
166, 169-71, 174, 181, 187ft, 197^,
220, 221ft, 239, 264

dove, 115ft, *39» *97

Dozy, Reinhart, and de Goeje,
M. J., 75ft

drachates j draconites / dracontias,
138, 139, 140

draconite, see drachates

Dragomanov, M., 147ft

dragon, 155, 197; in China, 245;
head of, 100; and snake, 233ft,
244; stone of, 138/; winged and
wingless, 120; and woman, 12,
103-4; see also snake

dream-analysis, 203

dreams, 25, 30, 35, 142, 223, 243;
anima/animus in, 19; childhood,
190; of disoriented student, 134;
fire in, 137ft; °f fishes, 151-52;
image of self in, 67; instinctual
foundation of, 203ft; mandalas in,
31; of Passion play and snake,
78ft; quaternary symbols in, 132ft;
shadow in, 120; symbolism in,
202

Drews, Arthur, 90ft

dualism: in archetypal self, 42; in
Christ-figure, 111; God's human-
ity and, 110; Manichaean, 49, 55,
57ft, 58, 61, 269

duality: man's, 255; symbol for
God, 195

du Cange, Charles, 128ft, 138ft, 154ft

"Duodecim portarum axiomata phi-
losophica," 131ft

"Duodecim tractatus," 156ft, 158

duty, conflicts of, 25, 45

dyad, 194

Dyophysites, 110

Ea, 121

eagle, 64, 72, 120

310

INDEX

earth, 264

East, Philosophical, 132

Ebionites, 44, 81, 147, 197

Ecclesiasticus (9 : i8[25]), 1$5>
(48: 1), 129

echeneis, 140-42, 144, 145, 154-55

echinus, see echeneis

Eckhart, Meister, 87, 135, 189, 193-
94,206,219

ecliptic, 93, 124

Eden, 225, 234; see also Paradise

education, modern, and dissocia-
tion, 181

egg, 220/2, 2397*

ego, 190; acquired during lifetime,
5; approximation to self, 23;
archetypes and, 8; as centre of
personality, 6; Christ's corre-
spondence to, 110; complex na-
ture of, 3; conscious and uncon-
scious in, 4; dependence on
unconscious, 7; effects of anima/
animus on, 16; exponent of self,
223; individuality of, 6; inflation
of, 23-24; its knowledge of itself,
163-64; and metaphysical ideas,
34; not coincident with conscious
personality, 4; overpowering of,
23; perplexity of, 189; relative
abolition of, 45; somatic and psy-
chic bases of, 3, 4; subjective con-
sciousness, 164; subordinate to
self, 5; as total consciousness, 5;
what it is, 3; see also assimilation;
personality

ego-consciousness: differentiation
from unconscious, 24; and psyche,
164; shadow and, 28

Egypt, 209/2; fish-cult in, 121; flight
of Christ to, 103; and Israel, com-
mon symbols, 123; Jews in, 78;
slaying of firstborn in, 58/1

eidos, 34

eight, 224

Eisler, Robert, 90/2, gin, 10311, 104/2,
116/2, 12m

Eleazar, Abraham, 131

electron, 187/1

elements, four, 251, 254, 264/, Plate
I; contained in lapis, 166, 237 8c
n; hate and love of, 17; quaternity
of, 86, 197/2; as stages of fire, 249

elephant, 226

Elephantine, 121

Eleusis: mysteries of, 217; priests of,
217/2

Elias, 106, 122/2

elixir vitae, 127, 180

Elogabal, 89/2

Elysian Fields, 30

Emmaus, 113

emotion: not an activity, 9; and the
shadow, 8-9

emotionality, female, 55

Empedocles, 17

enantiodromia, ix, 43, 93, 95, 102,
108, 149, 225, 258

ends, 165

energy, 251

enkekalymmenos, 18

Enlightenment, the, 43, 150

hvoia, 191, 197/2; see also conscious-
ness

"Entkrist," 101

Enurna Elish, 124

environment: influence of, 21; pro-
jections and, 9-10

Ephesians, Epistle to the: (3 : 18),
88/2; (4 : 23), 193/2; (5 : 14), 208

Ephrem the Syrian, St., 140

Epictetus, 213/2

Epidaurus, 188

Epiphanius, 44/2, 57, 66, 72/2, 76/2,
81/2,88, 104, 114, 147, 159/2, 190/2,
197, 202, 208/

Epiphany, 104

epiphenomenon, psyche as, 174

equation, quaternio as, 257/^

equinoctial point, 77^/2

Erman, Adolf, 78

INDEX

Eros, 11, 12, 19; anima and, 14, 16,

21; a mighty daimon, 27
Esaldaios, 197; "the fourth," 208
eschatological state, 169
eschatology, in New Testament, 36
Esdras II, 12m; (6:49/7), 14772;

(13 : 2ff), 120; (13 : 25), 11572
"Ethiopian woman," 228, 251, 252
Ethiopians, 210
Eubulides, i8n
eucharist, fish and, 113, 11572, 121,

152

eucharistic: act of integration, 144;
feast, of Ophites, 188; food, Levi-
athan as, 119/

Eucherius, 7272, 100

Euchites, 44, 148

Euphrates, 104, 184-85, 199/, 211,
225, 235, 251, 252

Euthymios Zigabenos, 148

evangelists, four, 36, 195; symbols
of, 123

Eve, 204, 205/, 206, 235; see also
Adam

Everlasting Gospel, see Gospel

evil, 41, 46/f; absolute, 10; anima/
animus and, 267; Christianity
and, 109; and disposition of soul,
61; Gnostics and, 230; and good,
44-4572, 46/7, 267; and the north,
124; principle of, as creator, 256;
shadow and, 266-67; see also
privatio boni

evolution, 180

exallatio, of Aphrodite, 112

exaltation, 15672

Exodus, Book of: (2 : 4ff), 210;
(12:22), 58; (15:6), 59;
(15 : 20/), 210; (18 : 27), 22972;

(33 = 5)» 58

experience: intersexual, 21/?; sen-
sory and immediate, 3

extrasensory perception, 18472

eyes, seven, 10572

Ezekiel, 101, 10572, 124, 132, 195,
241; (1 : 22), 123; (1 : 26), 123

factors: causal and final, of psychic
existence, 165; see also subjective
factor

fairytales, 149, 169, 180

faith: is absolute, 174; crumbling
away of content, 178; and dogma,
178; rift from knowledge, 173/

Fall, the, 37, 39

Fallopius, Gabriel, 158

Fanianus, Joannes Chrysippus, 157

Farnese Atlas (Naples), 91

father: and daughter, 14; demiurge
as, 190; in female argumentation,
15; God as, 193; idea of, 18/; in
Moses quaternio, 227; "signs of
the," 190; as unconscious, 191

father-animus, 210

father-mother, symbol for God, 195

fear, of unconscious, 33

feeling, 31, 178; function of value,

32
feeling-tones, 28, 33; subjective and

objective, 29
feeling-value, 28, 31
female, see male and female
femininity, man's, 2in
Ferguson, John, 13372
"Fidelissima et jucunda instructio

de arbore solari," 14072, 154
Fierz-David, Hans Eduard, 25171
Fierz-David, Linda, 1372
fifth, the, 225

filius macrocosmi, 66, 127, 155, 237
fdius philosophorum, 66, 127, 155,

213
fire, 101, 264; in alchemy, 130^, 252;

as dream-symbol, 13272, 13772;

four aspects of, 132, 249/f; and

water, 225
firmament, 164

Firmicus Maternus, Julius, 88
firstborn, slaying of the, 5872
fish(es): 189, 244; aeon of the, 62;

allegory of the damned, 122; in

Arab tradition, 123; assimilation

INDEX

of Christ-figure, 182; Atargatis
cult and, 121; bad qualities of,
112; beneath the earth, 145;
Christ and, 92, 113, 120; Christ
and age of, 92, 111; and Christ as
Ichthys, 115; Christian significance
of, 114; direction of, 91; "drawn
from the deep," 7gn, 120; eaten
by Christ, 12m; and fire, 135-36;
golden, dream of, 151-52; great,
as shadow of God, 119; — , split-
ting of, 119; historical significance
of, 103/f; in Jewish symbolism,
115, 121; Lambspringk's symbol
of reversed, 150; and Leviathan,
120; miraculous draught of, 89;
as mother and son, 111, 114;
originally one, 111; pagan sym-
bolism, 115/; Platonic month of,
ix, 149; in primitive Christianity,
188; "round," 127/f, 137-38, 140,
144; as ruling powers, 147, 149; as
sepulchral symbol, 115; and ser-
pent, 186; sign (K) of the, 72/f,
91; — , a double sign, 111; — ,
twelfth, of zodiac, 118; Southern,
n in, 112; symbol, ambivalence
of, n8#; -, of Christ, 67, 72/?,
89; — , in Eastern religions, 73;
— , of love and religion, 129; — ,
of self, 226; — , of soul, 122; sym-
bolism of, and self, 183; yoked,
145, 147, 148-49; zodiacal, in
Lambspringk, 145

fish-deities, Semitic, 121

fisherman, 112

fish-glue, 127/1

five, 224

fixation, 168

Flaccianus, 72*2

flatus vocis, 32

"flesh," the, 233

flood, god who dwells in, 211

flower, as symbol of self, 226

Fludd, Robert, 26271

Fomalhaut, 11 in, 112

font, baptismal, 73

formlessness, 66

four, see elements s.v. four

"fourth," the, 184, 252

Franciscan order, 83

Franz, Marie-Louise von, ix, 88n,
2 ion, 22on, 262n

Free Spirit: Brethren of the, 84,
150; and Eckhart, 194

freedom: of ego, limited, 7; moral,
26; subjective feeling of, 5

French Revolution, 43, 98, 233

Freud, Sigmund, 165, 20371; sexual-
istic approach to psyche, 226

frivolity, and evil, 61-62

Frobenius, Leo, 11 in

fructificatio, 83

functions: anima/animus as, 20;
differentiated and undifferenti-
ated, 195; four, of consciousness,
258, 259; quaternity of, 196; ra-
tional, 28; reflex, 233; sensory,
rivers as, 199; and space-time
quaternio, 253

Gaedechens, Rudolf, 9m

Galileo, 34

gall, fish's, 137

Gamaliel the Elder, ii3n

Gamow, George, 26on

garbha griha, 2i^n

Gargaros, 2o6n

Garnerius, 100, 125ft

gate, narrow, 200

Gayomart, 246

Gehenna, fire of, 131

Gemini (X), 77, 8on, 81, 83n

Genesis, Book of, 204, 235; (1 : 2),
148, 237; (1 : 7), i84n; (18 : 23),
59; (28 : 17), 21472; (44 : 5), 21m

Genesis, Johannine, 80

"genius," man's, 45

geomancy, 261

Gerard of Borgo San Donnino, 82

Gerhardt, Oswald, 74n, 75n, 77

Germanic peoples, 175

313

INDEX

Geryon, 211

Gihon, 199, 225, 235

"Gloria mundi," 8872, 130

Gnosticism/Gnostics, 58, 93, 181,
192, 196/f, 269; and alchemy, 173,
232; Christ-figure in, 203; and
demiurge, 15072; Eckhart and,
194; and evil, 41, 46, 109/; and
Holy Ghost, 86; and magnetism,
154; and psyche, 174; as psycholo-
gists, 222; quaternio among,
242/f, 254/f; and symbols of self,
184/f; and unconscious, 190-91;
and water, 159/2

god: dying, 206; "earthly," Mercu-
rius as, 232

God: absolute, 143; of Basilidians,
190; fish as shadow of, 119; and
man, affinity, 209; in Old and
New Testaments, 192; pneuma
and soma in, 254; quaternary
view of, 25372; symbols for, 195;
threefold sonship, 64; two sons of,
147; union of natures in, 110;
will of, 26/; without conscious-
ness, 192; of wrath and of love,
192

God-eating, 144

Godhead: in Eckhart, 193; Second
Person of, 196; unconscious, 193

God-image: alchemy and, 125;
anthropomorphic, 55, 67; centre
as, 219; in Christ and man, 38;
Christian doctrine as expressing,
174; an experience, 194; human
element in, 121; incomplete, 120;
reformation of, 40; results of de-
struction of, 109; self as, 63, 109;
and transcendent centre in man,
171; transformations of, and
changes in consciousness, 194;
and wholeness, 198; Yahwistic,
58; see also Imago Dei

God-man, archetype, 181-82

"gods": anima/animus as, 21; ithy-
phallic, 211; theriomorphic at-
tributes of, 29

goddess, heavenly, 13
Goethe, J. W. von, 208, 234
Gog and Magog, 79, 8072, 107
gold, in alchemy, 264
good and evil, see evil
Goodenough, Erwin R., 7372, 9072,

11372, 11572, 117, 12072, 12272, 14572

Gospel, Everlasting, 82, 85, 88
gospels: miraculous element in, 177;

synoptic, 93
grace: divine, 129; restoration

through, 39; state of, 34
grape, 200

Grasseus, Johannes, 139
Gratarolus, Gulielmus, 14672, 23272
gravity, spirit of, 11672
Great Bear, 123, 124
Great Mother(s), 8972, 112, 199, 210
green /greenness, 30, 245
Gregory the Great, St., 101, 20572,

20672
Grenfell, B. P., and Hunt, A. S., 3771
ground, universal, 195, 200; Gnostic

symbols for, 196/?
Guignebert, Charles, 21372
gyne (woman), 10472

Habakkuk, Book of, (2 : 3), 60

Haggard, H. Rider, 26772

Hahn, Christoph Ulrich, 84, 14572,

14672
Haly, 23972

Hanan ben Tahlifa, Rabbi, 8072
handwriting, 230
Hapi, 123

Harnack, Adolf, 5472, 25472
Harran, 126
Hartmann, E. von, 6
Hathor, Temple of, 91
heaven(s), 155; in Ascension of

Isaiah, 57; four pillars of, 123;

iron plate in, 122-23; kingdom

of, 145; lapis in, 170; northern,

314

INDEX

Heb-Sed festival, 198

Hecate, 21

Heidegger, Johann Heinrich, 7671

Heimarmene, 9371, 137/1

Helen (Selene), 21

Helen (in Simon Magus), 19771

Heliogabalus, 8971

hell, 135; St. Basil on, 129; eternity
of, 110; fire of, 131, 132; God's
love in, 125

hemispheres, 134

hemlock, 21771

Hennecke, Edgar, 5771

Henry II, of France, 95

heptad, 19771

Hera, 20671; Babylonian, 116

Heracles, 81

Heraclitus, 219, 250

heresies, 150

hermaphrodite, 159, 211, 234, 248;
and elevated places, 206; Original
Man as, 204; stone as, 246; sym-
bol for God, 195

Hermaphroditus, 127

Hennas, "Shepherd" of, 88ti, 103,
22471

Hermes, 21, 155, 209, 234, 245; bird
of, 221; ithyphallic, 230; Krioph-
oros, 103; Kyllenian/Kyllenios,
201, 211, 212, 232; Naassene view
of, 208; "Ter Unus," 177; see also
Mercurius/ Mercury

Hertz, Martin, 13671

Heru-ur, 78, 122-23, 13271

hesed, 58

hexad, 228

hexagrams, 260

Hiddekel, 225, 235

hieros gamos, 12, 39-40, 8971, 206

Hierosolymus, 7671

Hinduism, and Buddhism, 176

Hipparchus, 81, 91

Hippocrates, 20m

Hippolytus, 1, 64, 6571, 66, 7571,
88/i, 114, 139, 173, 184, 186, 187,
191, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 208/f,
222, 22371, 226, 23071, 233, 254

hiranyagarbha, 246

Hitler, Adolf, 102

Hoghelande, Theobald de, 137,
23971, 240

Holderlin, Friedrich, 29

Hollandus, Johannes Isaacus, 23571

Holy Ghost, 135, 162; age of, 82-
83, 85-86; espousal of, 86; fire of,
129, 131; indwelling of, 88;
movement, 85-86, 87, 89, 150

Homer: Iliad, 20671, 21871; Odyssey,
20871, 209, 216

homo: altus, 232; coelestis, 39;
maximus, 198; quadratus, 264

homosexual, 12

homunculus, 232, 246

Honorius of Autun, 101 n

hook, fish-, 11271

horos, 6571

horoscope, 136-37, 224; zodia in,
148

horse, 226

Horus, 104, 122; four sons of, 122,
123, 124, 132, 240, 243; "older,"
78; quaternio, 243; see also Heru-
ur

house, as symbol, 224/

Hugh of Strasbourg, 8071, 10271

human figure, as symbol of self, 225,
226

Hurwitz, Sigmund, 22671, 26871

hyacinth, 139

hydromedusa, 134

hyle, 79

hypochondriac ideas, 169

hysteria, 20371; collective, 181

Ialdabaoth, 75, 208

Ibn Ezra, 108

/ Ching, 11871, 260

Ichthys: Adonis as, 121; Christ as,

183; Christ or Attis as, 15271;

Christian, 112, 119-20, 121; son

of Derceto, 104, 111; see also

fish(es)

315

INDEX

ideals, collective, 29

Idechtrum, 213

Ideler, Christian Ludwig, 124ft

identification, with intellectual

standpoint, 31
identity, 18; of hunter and prey,

112; of lowest and highest, 246
Ides/Ideus, 213
idiosyncrasy (-ies), 169, 200
Ignatius Loyola, St., 165
ignis, see fire
ignorance, 191

illusion, 11, 16; see also may a
image of God: Christ and the soul

as, 37; see also imago Dei
imagination, active, 19, 223, 243
imago, of mother, 11, 12, 14
imago Dei, 31, 37, 3871, 41, 260; see

also God-image; image of God
Imhullu, 120
"immutability in the new rock," 84,

impulses, 27

"In Turbam philosophorum exer-
citationes," 126

incarnation, 179; fish and, 121

incest, 206, 210, 228, 229

incompletude, sentiment d', 9

increatum, 237

India: development of symbol in,
176, 217ft; Eckhart and, 194; fish
in, 114; religions of, 70; thought
of, 175

Indian influences, 223

Indies, 133-34

individuality, and ego, 6

individuation, 39, 40, 45, 200; apoc-
atastasis in, 169; Christianity and,
70; as mysterium coniunctionis,
64; opus and, 264; repressed, 70;
self and, 167; stone compared
with, 170; symbolized in dreams,

*53
infans, 127

infection, psychic, 24871
inferiority, 9, 17
inflation, 25; of ego, 23-24; nega-

tive, 62; peril of, 24; religious, 84
inhabitant, of house, 225
initiation, in mysteries, 261
Innocent III, Pope, 83, 99
innocents, massacre of, 103
Inquisition, 145
insight, intellectual, insufficiency of,

33
instinct(s), 21, 26, 31, 40-41, 145,

179, 234; archetype image of, 179;

individual and common, 7; snake

symbol of, 244
"Instructio de arbore solari," 14071,

154
integration, 30, 40, 200; of collective

unconscious, 39; of contents of

anima/animus, 20; mandala and,

32; of shadow, 22; of unconscious

contents, 23
intellect, and values, 32
intellectualism, 86, 150
intensity, of idea, 28
"Interpretatio . . . epistolae Alex-
andria 16771
Interrogationes maiores Mariae,

202, 207
Irenaeus, 4m, 45-46, 54, 6571, 6671,

lion, 15071, 196, 19771, 2i8n, 21971
Iron Age, fourth, 108
iron-stone, magnetic, 15671
irrationality, 17
Isaac, 9071
Isaiah, Ascension of, see Ascension

of Isaiah
Isaiah, Book of: (14 : 12/f), 100;

(14 : 31), ioiti; (26 : 20), 59;

(27 : 1), 118, 119; (28 : 10), 21071;

(30 : 18), 60; (33 : 14), 14471;

(66 : 7), 105 ^
Ishmael, Rabbi, 60
Ishtar, 112

Isidore of Seville, St., 15471
Isidorus (Gnostic), 234
Isis, 104

Islam, 5471, 76, 9571, 99, 176
Israel and Egypt, common symbols,

123

316

INDEX

Jacob, 214

Jacobi, Jolande, 253*2

Ja'far ibn Muhammad (Abu Ma'-

shar) al-Balkhl, see Albumasar
James, Epistle of, 135; (3 : 5), 13572;

(3 = 6), 135

James of Sarug, 75

James, Montague Rhodes, 3772,
19772

Jeans, Sir James, 25872

jelly-fish, 128, 134, 137-38, 15472

Jeremiah, Book of: (1 : 13), 101;
(1 : 14), 100

Jeremias, Alfred, 7372, 74, 112, 12472

Jesuits, 58

Jesus, 1, 65, 144, 201; faith and per-
sonality of, 178-79; as God-man,
35; Makarios, 200; Passion of, 64,
65, 67; in Pistis Sophia, 78-79;
relation to Christ, 67; and separa-
tion of categories, 64; as third
sonship, 67; a trichotomy, 65; as
"truth sprouting from earth," 79;
see also Christ

Jethro, 20972, 210, 228/, 244

Joachim of Flora, 82-83, 84, 86, 87,
149, 150, 253, Plate II

Job, 60, 108, 120

Job, Book of, 42, 58, 118; (26:7),
100; (26 : 12), 120; (26 : 13), 12072;
(27 : 21), 101; (41), 11972

Jochanan, Rabbi, 60

Johannes de Lugio, 14672

John, St., 145; Epistles of, 43, 68;
First Epistle of (4 : 3), 3672; Reve-
lation of, see Revelation

John, Gospel of, 148; (1), 21872;
{11 iff), 211; (1:2), 148; (i:4)»
211; (3 : 12), 202, 203; (4 : 10),
18472, 185, 19972; (5 : 2), 13 m;
(6:54), 202; (7:38), 214; (10:9).
18572; (10 : 34), 89, 20972; (14 : 6),
200; (18 : 36), 3772

John the Baptist, 19272

John Chrysostom, St., 48/

John of Paris, 8072

Jonah, 117; sign of, 111

Jonathan, Rabbi, 60

Jordan, 210-11

Joseph (father of Jesus), 78-79

Josephus, 76

Joshua, 111

jot, 218

Jothor, 209, 210

Judaeus (son of Set), 7672

Judaism, 58/f; Messianism in, 107

judgments: good/evil as, 53; moral,
47-48

Jung, Carl Gustav:

cases: student who dreamed of
jelly-fish, 134; young woman
with intense inner life who
dreamed of fishes, 151-52
works: "Answer to Job," 8772;
Commentary on The Secret of
the Golden Flower, 18272;
"Concerning Mandala Symbol-
ism," 4072, 21972; "Concerning
Rebirth," 11172; "Instinct and
Unconscious," 872; Memories,
Dreams, Reflections, 13472; Mys-
terium Coniunctionis, 1372,
23572; "On the Nature of the
Psyche," 4, 872, 2472, 16472, 17472,
17972; "On Psychic Energy,"
2972; "Paracelsus the Physi-
cian," 13372, 21372; "Paracelsus
as a Spiritual Phenomenon,"
21172, 21472, 23972, 24272; "The
Phenomenology of the Spirit in
Fairytales," 5572, 8572, 9972,
15972, 20372, 22472, 22972; "The
Philosophical Tree," 23572; "A
Psychological Approach to the
Dogma of the Trinity," 3772,
8672, 15272, 15372, 22472, 24672,
253^; Psychological Types, 2872,
11672, 15972, 22372, 22472, 25372;
Psychology and Alchemy, 3172,
3772, 4072, 6372, 6472, 6772, 7872,
87, 11672, 12572, 13472, 13672,
14072, 15272, 15572, 182, 19071,

317

INDEX

Jung, Carl Gustav (cont.):

19771, 19971, 23771, 23971, 24m,
24371, 24571, 25971, 262, 26471;
"The Psychology of the Child
Archetype," 3 m; "The Psy-
chology of Eastern Medita-
tion," 13571, 15 in, 20471;
"Psychology and Religion,"
8771, 18271; "Psychology of the
Transference," 1371, 2271, 6471,
15971, 16771, 20971, 22571, 22871,
22971, 24271, 24371; "The Psy-
chology of the Trickster Fig-
ure," 20371; "The Relations
between the Ego and the Un-
conscious," 2171, 2371, 6371,
18271; "The Spirit Mercurius,"
4371, 8671, 13671, 15271, 16871,
20371, 21271, 23271, 23571, 25371;
"A Study in the Process of In-
dividuation," 6571, 6771, 19071,
20471, 21971, 25371, 25971; Sym-
bols of Transformation, 10171,
inn, 13271; "Synchronicity,"
18471, 25871; "Transformation
Symbolism in the Mass," 14471,
22071, 23871; "t)ber das Selbst,"
2371

Jupiter (u), 74, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82,
8371, 95, 97; moons of, 34

jurisprudence, and consciousness, 5

justice, of Yahweh, see Yahweh

Justin Martyr, 173, 177, 230

Ka-mutef, 206
Kant, Immanuel, 6
karma, 14071, 27m
Kaulakau, 210
Kelchner, Ernst, 10271
Kena Upanishad, 223
Kepler, Johann, 7771, 173, 207
kerygmatics, 177
Keshava, 114
Kewan, 7571
Khidr legend, 1 1 1

Khunrath, Heinrich Conrad, 88,
156, 220

kibla, 124

king(s), deification of, 198; divine

right of, 177
kingdom(s), heavenly/of God, 37;

two, in pseudo-Clement, 55
"kingless race," 260
Kings, First Book of, 59; (22 : 19),

59
kingship, and self, 198
Kircher, Athanasius, 262/
Kirchmaier, Georg Caspar, 11671
Klaus, Brother, 25
Knapp, Martin Johann, 8171
Kohut, Alexander, 24671
Kolorbas, 195
Korah, children of, 106
Koran, 11171
Kore, 104
Korion, 104
Korybas, 199, 211-12
krater, 6571, 19171
Kurma, 176
Kyrios, 182

lac virginis, 160

"Ladder of the Twin Gods," 122

Lagarde, Paul A. de, 5671

Laiblin, Wilhelm, 14971

lake, as symbol of self, 226

Lamb, 103; in Apocalypse, 9071,

105/; Church as Bride of, 204;

marriage of the, 12, 36, 268
Lambspringk, 9271, 145, 150
lamp, 112
lapis (philosophorum), 68, 87, 127,

i39» J43' *55» *59> l82> 2o8> 236#>
247#, 263; fish as symbol of, 126/f;
found only in heaven, 170; par-
allel of Christ, 237; quaternio,
238^; as rock, 88; and serpent,
245; symbol of self, 268; thousand
names of, 182, 189; "uncomeli-
ness" of, 140; union of opposites
in, 247/; see also stone

lapis angularis (Christ), 208

lapis animalis, 157

INDEX

lapis exilis, 30

lapis vegetabilis, 159

Lateran Council, Fourth, 52/1, 82,
83^ 253/1

lawlessness, man of, 3672

Layard, John Willoughby, 24271

lead, 139

Leda, 81

left, see right and left

legends, 169

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 6, 16411,
258

lethargia, 20872

Lethe, and unconscious, 20872

Leto, 104

Leviathan, 123, 147ft, J^2' battle
with Behemoth, 80, 108; eucha-
ristic food, 112, 120; fish and, 120;
male and female, 118

Levy-Bruhl, Lucien, 29

Lexicon medico-chymicum, 15472

Libavius, Andreas, 158

liberty, idea of, 29

libido, 13271, 256; kinship, 243

Libra (=o=), 7772, 83

Libya, 138

life-process, psychic interpretation
of, 4

light, transcendent nature of, 6371

Lightfoot, Joseph Barber, 21371

lime, unslaked, 130; see also quick-
lime

lingam, 21772

lion(s), 120; Michael and, 75; sym-
bol of Christ, 72; of the tribe of
Judah, 105; two, 150

lodestone, 18972; see also magnet

Logos, 148, 187/, 201, 252; animus
and, 14, 16, 21; cosmogonic, 211;
Gnostic, 202; Hermes as, 201; as
magnetic agent, 188; Protan-
thropos as, 209; serpent as, 188,
232

X670S airepfiariKos, 207

love: fish as symbol of, 129; at first
sight, 15; God's, in hell, 125; lan-
guage of, 15

love-magic, 140

love-potion, 138

Loyola, see Ignatius

Lucian, 212

lucidus, 13872, 13972

Lucifer, 72, 125

Lugio, Johannes de, 146

Luke, Gospel of: (5 : 10), 89;
(6 : 35)» 89> 20972; (11 : 29/), inn;
(16 : 8), 14672; (16 : 17), 21872;
(17 : 2o#), 37; (19: i2#), 166;
(19 : 27), 10672; (24 : 42), 12172;
(24:43), 113

Lully (Lull), Raymond, 23972

Luna, 235; see also moon

Luther, Martin, 89, 235; as Anti-
christ, 102

Lycia, 121

Maag, Victor, 18272

Macrobius, Ambrosius Theodosius,

21972
macrocosm, 214
Magi, 89, 132
magic, 140, 242
magnesia, 155-57, 159, 160
magnet, 133, 154/?, 184, 18772; of the

wise, 142, 155
magnetic agent, three forms of, 188
magnetism, 13372; of fish, 154;

Gnostics and, 184/?
Magog, see Gog and Magog
Magus, 16772

Mahomet, 97; see also Mohammed
Maier, Michael, 18772, 220, 249, 252,

264, pi. I
Maimonides, Moses, 11671, 11971
Mainyo-i-Khard, 24672
Majui, 8ot2
maladaptation, 27
Malchuth, 268
male and female, 55
man: complete, water as, 200;

higher, in Moses quaternio, 228;

319

INDEX

man (cont.):

inner, 208/, 228; One, 205; Orig-
inal, 198, 200, 201, 203, 204, 211,
214, 216, 237, 239, see also Adam,
Anthropos, Archanthropos, Pro-
tanthropos; perfect, 212/; pneu-
matic, 256; primordial, 36

"man," in II Esdras, 120

mana, 25171

Mandaeans, 124

mandala(s), 64, 152, 219, 241, 253;
Christ in Christian, 36; rotation
of, 259; in student's dream, 134;
symbols of order, 31/, 135; totality
images, 40, 268; and unconscious
personality, 204; vessel as, 240

Manget, Jean Jacques (Joannes
Jacobus Mangetus), i26n

Manichaeans/Manichaeism, 48, 49,
55» 57"-> 58> 6in; 99, see also
dualism

Manu, 73; fish of, 113/

Marcionites, 49

Marduk, 120, 124

Maria, axiom of, 153, 251

Maria the prophetess, 240

Mariam, see Miriam

Mariette, Francois A. F., 7671

Marinus, 54

Mark, Gospel of, (10 : 18), 58/1

marriage: of Christ and the Church,
39; classes, 22; as conscious rela-
tionship, 243; constellation of un-
conscious in, 242; cross-cousin, 22,
2ogn, 229, 242/; mingling of
subtle with dense, 16771; of
mother and son, 12; quaternio,
22, 64, 209, 210, 229, 242, 252

Mars ( $ ), 7972, 95

Marxism, 181

Mary: as fountain, 116; in Gnostic
symbolism, 202, 204, 205; in Pistis
Sophia, 78

Mary, the Virgin, 205; Assumption,
87; Immaculate Conception, 8771;
as substitute for Church, 2 in

masculinity, woman's, 2 m

Masenius, Jacobus, 15471

mass man and evil, 166

massa confusa, 148, 155, 234, 236

Mater Alchimia, 173, 232

materialism, 109, 150, 176, 181, 233,

257, 260
mathematics, 261
Matsya, 176

matter, numinosity of, 66, 260
Matthew, Gospel of, loin, 20 in;

(2 : iff), 89; (3 : 2), i92n; (4 : 19),

89; (5 : 3)» 193; (5 = 8). 2i7n;
(5:18), 2i8tz; (5:48), 69n;
(7 : 14), 20on; (10 : 34), 187;
(12:39), inn; (13:24). 37";
03:45)' 37"; (16:4), in";
(17:4), i22n; (18:23), 37";
(19 : 17), 58n, 20m; (21 : 19),
io6n; (22 : 2), 37n; (22 : 7), 26n;

(27 = i5ff)> 90
may a, 11, 13
meaning, 27

Mechthild of Magdeburg, St., 205/
mediator, 237n, 239; animus as, 16;

man as, 255/
medicament, incorrupt, 170
medulla, 205, 233
medusa, 126$
Meerpohl, Franz, 219
megalomania, 17
Meir ben Isaac, 118
Melusina, 235
memory, 4

mendicant orders, 82, 83
Mephistopheles, 234
Mercurius/ Mercury ( £ ), 76, 77n,

78> 95> 97» i3°» 131* i6i> 171* i87'
232, 249/, 252; as anima mundi,
136; and double aspect of water,
180; double/duplex nature of,
150, 252/, 254; "non vulgi," 155,
234; philosophical, see Mercurius
"non vulgi"; and the Pole, 133,
135; synonyms for, 241; as tree-
numen, 235; as trickster, 203n;
as Virgo, 127
mercy, of Yahweh, 59, 60

320

INDEX

Mesopotamia, 74, 214

Messahala, 82/2

Messiah(s), 106/f, 121; ben Joseph
and ben David, 107; birth of,
105, 149; coming of, 74, 118;
two, 107, 108; in Zohar, 214

Mestha, 123

metals, 246

fierdvoia, 192

metaphysical ideas, 34, 35

metaphysics: Jung and, 195/1; psy-
chology and, 54, 61, 67, 194, 198

Metatron, 214

Meyer, Karl H., 146

Michael (angel), 75

Michaias, 57

microcosm/microcosmos, 155, 164,
214; wandering, 213

microphysics, 174

Midrashim, 59; Midrash Tanchuma
(Shemoth), 5971, 118/2, 119/2

mind, transformation of, 192

Miriam, 209, 210, 228, 244

Mithraic: liturgy, 124; monuments,

Mithras, 121, 124

modesty, 25

Mohammed, 102; see also Mahomet

molecular movement, 250/

mollusc, 128

monad(s), 189, 218/; Kircher's, 262-
63; in Sabellius, 253/1

monasticism, 82/, 85, 89

monks, as fishes, 113

Monoimos, 218/, 222/

Monophysites, 110

monotheism, 268

monsters: attributes of death, 120;
horned, 105; sea, see Behemoth,
Leviathan; splitting of, 119/

moods, 17

Moon ( ]) ), 76, 77, 155, 249; celes-
tial horn of, 211

morality, 25

Morienus Romanus, 166, 168

morphomata, 81

Moses, 74, 107, 122/2, 209/1, 210,

227#, 244
Moses quaternio, 227/?, 243/, 251,

254/
Moses ha-Darshan, 106
mother, 155; chthonic, 22; higher,

in Moses quaternio, 228; search

for, 11; as symbol, 1 1 ; and son,

12; see also Great Mother(s);

imago
mountain, 203, 209; as symbol of

self, 226
Muenter, Friedrich, 74
mumia, 213/

mummy, 122; see also mumia
Mundus, 137
Musaeum hermeticum, 88/2, 130/2,

13m, 133/1, 145/1, 150/1, 22m,

24m
mussel-shell, 127/
Mut, 206

"mutilation of the soul," evil as, 48
Mylius, Johann Daniel, 88/2, 139,

156/1, 187/1, 197/2, 221, 235/2, 237/2,

239/2
mysteries, Eleusinian, 217
mysterium coniunctionis, 64
mysterium iniquitatis, 44, 86
mysticism, Jewish, 108
mythologem: of Amen, 206; dying

god, 206; fish as, 138
"mythological" aspects, 30
mythology, 35; comparative, 34;

and dogma, 179
myths, 35, 149; cosmogonic, 148;

gods in, 177; and unconscious

processes, 180

Naas, 199, 230, 232

Naassenes, 64, 75, 88, 89, 184/, 197,

198, 199, 200, 201, 208/, 241,

226/; see also quaternio
name, and thing, 32
Nanni, Giovanni, 102/2

321

INDEX

naphtha, 185

Naples: Farnese Atlas, 91

Nathan, Rabbi, 11371

nature: Christianity and, 174; im-
provement of, 143; individual, of
Christ's disciples, 211; rejoices in
nature, 159; two powers of, 123

natures, changing of the, 166

Nazis, 102

necromancy, 262

negligence, evil and, 62

Negroes, 210

nekyia, 209

Nelken, Jan, 3371

Nematophora, 128

Neoplatonists, 126

Nero, 102

Neumann, Erich, 11671, 14871, 18371

neurosis(es), 20, 180, 181, 189

neurotic disturbances, 169

New Testament: devil in, 86; escha-
tology, 36; Jesus in, 179; snake in,
245; see also names of individual
books

Nicholas of Cusa, 22571

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 260

night-heron, 72

night sea journey, 111

Nigidius Figulus, Publius, 136

nigredo, 148, 149, 194, 210; see also
chaos

Nina, 121

Nippur, 124

nirdvandva, 191

nodes, 253

North, the, 99/f; in ancient history,
125; Ezekiel and, 124; King of
the, 125; Mithras and, 124

North Star, 133

Nostradamus, Michel, 95/f, 125, 126

"nothing but," 179

nous, 21; descent to Physis, 233;
krater filled with, 19 m; Mercu-
rius symbol of, 168; serpent as,
186, 188, 230, 232; unconscious,
20371

"Novi luminis chemici Tractatus

alter de sulphure," 13171
Numbers, Book of: (12 : 10), 210;

(16), 10671; (24 : 16), 5971; (24 : 17),

11771
Numbers, see dyad; triad; quater-

nity; heptad; ogdoad; three; four;

five; eight; twelve
Nun, 111, 121

Oannes, 73, 112, 121, 201

observation, uncertainty of, 226

obsessions, 169

obsidian, 138, 13971

ocean /Oceanus, 209, 212, 214, 218

Oehler, Franciscus, 191

ogdoad, 110, 196, 19771, 226; archon
of the, 190

Old Testament, 70; see also names
of individual books

olive, 200

Olympiodorus, 23971, 264

Olympus, 164

omega element, 238

Onians, Richard Broxton, 21271

Ophites, 188

Ophiuchus, 111

opinionatedness, 16

opinions, 21: archetypes and, 17;
Logos and, 15

opposites: alchemical, linked to-
gether, 244; anima/animus, 268;
annihilation of, 70; Christ/Satan,
44-4571; cinedian stone and, 139;
coincidence of, 124; — , in God-
head, 193; conjunction of, 40, 70,
194, see also coniunctio opposi-
torum; day/night, 123; equiva-
lence of, 61; Father as without,
191; good/evil, 47, 123; Heru-ur/
Set, 123; husband/ wife, 204;
identity of, symbols and, 129/;
kosmos/chaos, 123; life/death,
123; light /darkness, 223; moral

322

INDEX

accentuation of, 70; never unite
at own level, 180; pairs of, see
also syzygy(ies); problem of, and
neurosis, 180; serpents, 11872;
tension of, 31, 91, 247/; union of,
264; — , in astrology, 77, 87; — ,
and salvation, 195; — , in stone,
170; — , and unconsciousness, 193

opsianus, 138

opus, 237; as apocatastasis, 169; and
creation of world, 148, 234; and
individuation, 264

Oracula sibyllina, 7372

order: mandalas symbols of, 31;
principle of, 195

Origen, 37, 38/2, 41, 44-4572, 75, 81,
9071, 11472, 204/, 215, 234; and
the devil, 110

Orion, 136

Orosius, 23071

Orpheus, 103

Orphos, 121

Osiris, 122, 123, 198, 199, 201

Osob, 146, 147/1,, 200

Ostanes, 15971, 23771, 24572

oxen, fishes and, 145, 147, 148/

Oxford English Dictionary, 25

oxyrhynchus (fish), 122

Oxyrhynchus, fish- worship at, 121

Oxyrhynchus fragments, 3772, 144,
145

paganism, 96; return of, in Europe,

176
pair, royal, in Moses quaternio, 228
Palestine, 74, 138
Pan, 199
Pandolfus, 156
Pandora, 241
panic, 33
panspermia, 200

Pantheus, Joannes Augustinus, 13972
Papa, 213
Papyri Graecae Magicae, 126

Paracelsus, 164, 181, 213, 214, 237

para-da, 152

Paradise: four rivers of, 184, 199,
215, 227, 235, 243; Garden of
Eden, 25472; Leviathan eaten in,
113; quaternio, 234/, 236/, 243,
245, 254; as symbol, 189

paradox, 70

Parmenides, 13772, 143

parthenogenesis, 35

Parthenon, 20372

Passion, of Jesus, see Jesus

Passover, 119

Patarenes, 83

patience, 24

Paul, St., 39, 174, 176, 177, 178, 191;
Epistles of, 68; see also names of
separate Epistles

Pauli, W., 20772

Paulicians, 148

Paulinus of Nola, 6572

pearl, round, 12772

Pectorios inscription, 8972, 113, 11672

pelican, 239

penetration, 12072

Pentecost, 129

Pepi I, 88n, 122

Peratic doctrine, 185/

perception(s): conversion of stimuli
into, 4; endosomatic, 3; psyche
and, 32

Perdition, Son of, 36

peregrinatio, 133

perfection: Christ as, 39; and com-
pleteness, 68/; evil as lack of, 41

perforation, 1 2072

Pernety, Antoine Joseph, 155, 160/

Perpetua, St., Passion of, 210

Persephone, 12, 21, 217

personality: changes of, 6; dissocia-
tion of, 180; double, 120; ego as
centre of, 6; inferior, see shadow;
of Jesus, 178/; not coincident
with ego, 5; self as total, 5; total
description of, impossible, 5

perversions, intellectual, 169

Pesahim, see Talmud

323

INDEX

Peter, St., 89; in Clementine

Homilies, 56
Peter, First Epistle of; (2 : 4), 88;

(2:4/), 17m; (2:5), 88
Peter Damian, St., 113
Peter Lombard, 25371
Peters, C. H. F., and Knobel, E. B.,

11", 9371
phallicism: Gnostic, 232; uncon-
scious, 226
phallus, 201/, 226
pharmakon athanasias, 116
phenomenology, individual, and

collective unconscious, 179
Philalethes, Eirenaeus, 132, 13371,

241
Philippians, Epistle to the (3 : 12),

212
phlogiston theory, 250/
phobias, 169
Phrat, see Euphrates
Phrygians, 198, 213; see also Naas-

senes
phylokrinesis, 64, 79, 25871
physics: collision of psyche with,

174; nuclear, 261; and psychology,

261
Physis, 198, 233, 247, 249, 259
Phyton, 131
Picinellus, Philippus, 11 2ft, 11371,

12272, 129, 135
Pisces: aeon, middle of, 150; zodi-
acal sign for, 91, 114; see also

fish(es)
pisciculi Christianorum, 103
piscina, 89

Piscis Austrinus, mn
Pison, 199, 225, 235
Pistis Sophia, 7572, 78/, 9371, 12271,

13772, 19772
Pius IX, Pope, 8772
planets, influence of, 148
Plato, 246; Phaedrus, 64; Timaeus,

136

Platonic Tetralogies, Book of, see
"Platonis liber quartorum"

"Platonis liber quartorum," 19772,
238, 26172

Pleiades, 136

pleroma, 4172, 46, 6672, 21972

Pliny, 128, 138, 144, 15672, 177

Plotinus, 219

plough, 148/

Plutarch, 76, 121, 12272

pneuma, 21, 83; and Barbelo, 19772;
feminine, 206; in God, 254; hid-
den in stone, 245; of Jesus, 79;
winged beings as, 120

Trvev/JLariKos (-ot), 21 2^72, 21 972

Pohl, Otto, 11372

Poimandres, 103

Poimen, see Hermas

point, 189, 198/, 218, 222; in al-
chemy, 220/

pole, 133-34; centre in North, 171;
heavenly, 123/, 224; North, hid-
den God at, 135; — , magnetism
of, 154

Polemon, 7672

Pollux, 81

polydemonism, 175

polytheism, 175, 268

Poor Men of Lyons, 83, 146, 150

Pordage, John, 16372, 235

Poseidon, 216

Prajapati, 20772

precession of equinoxes, 81, 92, 95

prefigurations, 261

Preisendanz, Karl, 12672

Priapus, 230

prima materia, 132, 142, 161, 162,
237; alchemical laborant as, 168;
anima and, 187; lapis as, 127, 236,
264; production of, 155; as psy-
chic situation, 155; synonyms of,
160

primum mobile, 131

principium individuationis, 64

Priscillian, 88, 136, 23072

privatio from'/privation of good, 41,
4572, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 58, 61, 6272,
110, 269; see also evil

problems, moral, 25/

324

INDEX

projection (s): anima and, 13; ani-
ma/animus, 17, 242; dissolution
of, 18/; effect of, 9/; impersonal
withdrawal of, 23; mandala and,
32; in Mary, 204; and mother-
imago, 12; reality of factor mak-
ing, 24; and reality of psyche,
66n; shadow and, 9

Protanthropos, 213; and Korybas,
211; as Logos, 209; Sophia and,
197; see also Adam; Anthropos;
Man, original; Archanthropos

Protestantism/Protestants, 150, 178

Proteus, 216/

Protoplast, 214

Protothoma, 213

Prunicus/npouyiKos, 19671; see also
Sophia

Psalms: (2 : 9), 105; (82 [81] : 6),
209; (89), 108/

Psellus, Michael, 4472, 14871

psyche, 142, 255; aspects of, 32;
begetter of all knowledge, 173;
ego-consciousness of, 164; and
evil, 62; field of consciousness, 6;
horoscope and, 136; and life-proc-
esses, 4; man's knowledge of, 165;
and matter, 261; objective reality
of, scientists and, 174; outside
consciousness, 6; reality of, 66n;
reasons for undervaluation of, 62

"psychic," use of term, 4

psychoanalysis, 20371

psychology, and good/evil, 53

psychopathology, 30

psychopomp(os): anima as, 30; ani-
mus as, 16; fishes as symbols for,
145; Proteus as, 216

psychosis, 33; mass, 24871

psychotherapy: and anima/animus,
267; and problem of opposites,
180

Ptolemy, 7472,, 9471

puer, 127

"puffed-up-ness," 24; see also infla-
tion

pulmo marinus, 128

punctum J punctus solis, 22on; see

also point
purusha, 167, 194
Pyramid Texts, 122
Python, 104

Qazvini, 123

Qebhsennuf, 123

'qltn, 119

quaternio/quaternity, 159, 194, 210,
211, 226^; its character of whole-
ness, 224; of Christ, 204; Chris-
tian, 253; and circle, motif, 224;
defective, three as, 224; in fire,
132; in Irenaeus, 19771; Kircher's,
262/; in man, 22; Naassene, 2271,
7971; of opposites, in self and
Christ, 63/; as organizing schema,
242; Osiris and, 123; self as, 42;
static quality of, 257; as symbols,
31, 195; — , for God, 195; — , self
in, 190; unity complement of,
224; see also Anthropos quater-
nio; Horus quaternio; lapis qua-
ternio; marriage quaternio;
Moses quaternio; Paradise qua-
ternio; shadow quaternio; space-
time quaternio

quick-lime, 158

quicksilver, 139, 155

"quicksilver system," Indian, 152

quid/quis distinction, 164, 169

Quinta Essentia, 15971

Quispel, Gilles, 66 & n, 190, 191

Ra, 122

Radhakrishnan, Sarvapalli, 22371
radius, see ray
Rahab, 120

325

INDEX

Rahner, Hugo, 21572, 23571
Raison, Deesse, 98
Ram (cf), 7772; see also Aries
ram: Christ as, 90, 92; daemonic,

105/; symbol of Christ and Attis,

103; see also lamb
Rameses II, 78

Ramsay, William Mitchell, 7371
Raphael, 113

Rashi, see Solomon ben Isaac
Ras Shamra, 119
rationalism, 86, 150, 221
rationality, 24872; male, 55
raven, 72
ray, 18772

realism, 150, 176, 233
reality: psychic, 48; requires po-
larity, 267
realization, conscious, 23972
rebirth, 212
Rebis, 159, 268
Red Sea, 74
Redeemer: archetype of, 183; as

fish and serpent, 186; Gnostic/

Gnosticism and, 79, 184; and un-

scious, affinity of, 181
redemption, 35, 70, 175, 191, 256;

of the dead, 39
reflection, 16
Reformation, the, 93, 102, 178;

Holy Ghost movement and, 87
reformation, of God-image, 40
Reguel, 229; see also J e thro
Reitzenstein, Richard, 7572, 103;

and Schader, H. H., 24672
relationship, 17; function of, 14,

16; inadequate, 19; to partner, 22
remora, 140/, 144, 15472
Rempham, 7572
Renaissance, the, 43, 94, 98
renovatio, 9872
renovation of the age, 98
repentance, 192
representations collectives, 29
repression, 226
resentment, 16

resistances, shadow and, 9
responsibility, in jurisprudence, 5
Revelation of St. John: (5 : 5), 105;

(5 : 6), 10571; (5 : 6ff), 105;

(6:i5#), 105; (12:1), 103;

(12:9), 23072; (14:4)' 217'

(17: 14), 105; (20:7/), 7972; see

also Apocalypse
revolution, 9872
Rex gloriae, 195, 204
Rhabanus Maurus, 100
Rhea, 199
Rhine, J. B., 18472
right and left, 54, 59, 25871
righteousness, 70
Rig-Veda, 19272
Ripley, Sir George, 13m, 139, 144,

14872, 149, 23572, 249
Ripley "Scrowle," 235, 265
ritual, 256; Protestantism and, 178
rivers, four, of Paradise, 184, 199,

215, 225, 227, 235, 243
Roberts, R., 22m
rock: Christ as, 87/; inner man as,

208
roes, two, 107
Romans, Epistle to: (7:21), 6971;

(12 : 2), 40
Romulus, 10772
room, as symbol, 224/
Rosarium philosophorum, 15672,

i97n^ 23972, 24572
Roscher, Wilhelm Heinrich, 21172,

21272

Rosenkreutz, Christian, 210

Rosinus, 156, 157, 167/

rota nativitatis, 136

rotation, 24672, 257

rotundum, 238, 23972, 246, 248/, 257

Rousselle, Erwin, 11 72

Ruland, Martin, 13372, 13872, 139,

15672
Rupescissa, Johannes de, 146, 241,

265
Ruska, Julius, 12672, 13072, 13772,

22072

326

INDEX

Sabaeans, 75, 124, 19771

Sabaoth, 76

Sabbath, 75

Sabellius, 25371

Sagittarius, 7471

sailor, 112

sal ammoniac, 15471

sal sapientiae, 133, 161

Salmanas, procedure of, 12771

salt, 133, 157; in alchemy, 161; "of

the metals," 139
salvation, 195
Salvator mundi, 127
Sammael, 57
Samothrace, 211, 212
Sanhedrin, see Talmud
sapientia, 160, 220
Sapientia Dei, 127
Sassanids, 116
Satan, 43/, 10571; as elder son of

God, 57, 61; in Old Testament,

192; state before fall, 145; and

two fishes, 148
Satanael, 43, 147
satori, 169

Satorneilos, see Saturninus
Saturn ( 1? ), 74^, 7771, 81, 82, 83,

96, 97, 98, 99; and Esaldaios, 208;

as Gnostic symbol, 197; Jewish

thought and, 74/; and quicksilver,

139; stone and, 138/
Saturnia (plant), 139
Saturninus, 219
Saulasau, 210
Saviour, compounded of four

things, 19771
Scharf, Riwkah, 4272, 12 in, 192,

24571
Scheftelowitz, I., 11372, 116, 117,

n8n, 119
Schelling, F. W. J., 6
schizophrenia, 33
Schoettgen, Christian, 10772, 21472
scholasticism, 172
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 6

Schreber, Daniel Paul, 3372

Schwestrones, 8472

science: alchemy and, 176; and
faith, 173/; natural, 27; — , rise
of, 150; modern, 89; trinity in,
258

scintilla vitae, 219

Scott, Walter, 19172

sculptures, obscene, 21772

scurrility: in dreams, 203; of Gnos-
tic nomenclature, 230

scyphomedusa, 128

sea, 155; "our," 142

sea-hawk, 18772; centre of the, 189

seal, seventh, opening of, 82

seals, 216

sea-nettle, 128/2

sea-urchin, 15472

Second Coming, ix; expectation of,
256

Secret of the Golden Flower, 18272,
224, 264

secret of the wise, 143

sects, 96/

Secundus, non

Selene, 21

self, 23/f, 33, 34; Anthropos and,
189; antinomial character, 225;
apotheosis of individuality, 62;
appearance of in unconscious
products, 190; appears in all
shapes, 226; as archetype, 167; as
brahman and atman, 222; Christ
as archetype /symbol of, 36/f, 6272,
182; Christ's correspondence to,
110; dream-symbols and, 132;
"fixation" of, in mind, 168/;
Gnostic symbols of, 184/f, 226/f; a
God-image, 22, 205; impersonal
unconscious and, 169; lapis as,
127, 167; a product of cognition,
69; as quaternion of opposites,
63/; relation to ego, 6; religious
mythologem, 30; round fish as,
142, 144; supraordinate to ego, 3;
as total personality, 5; transcen-
dental), 62/, 170; union of con-

327

INDEX

self (cont.):

scious and unconscious, 268; see
also assimilation; atman; God-
image

self-aggrandizement, 24; see also in-
flation

self-criticism, 25

self-fertilization, 207

self-knowledge, 16, 162/f, 222; and
alchemy, 166/?; and ends, 165/;
increased, 19, 23/f; and knowl-
edge of ego, 164; shadow and, 8

Senard, Marcelle, 92/1

senarius, 228, 230

Sendivogius, Michael, 13m

Senior, 240

sense-perception, see perception

sentimentality, 16

separa^'o/separation, 168, 170; see
also divisio

Sephiroth, Tree of the, 58

Sephora, 209, 210

septenarius, 240

serpens mercurialisjMercurii, 160,
234> 245

serpent(s), 111, 189, 232, 255; fight-
ing, 118; as magnetic agent, 188;
Naas, 199; in Peratic doctrine,
185/; in shadow quaternio, 230,
244; and stone, 245; and tension
of opposites, 247; see also dragon;
snake; uroboros

Set, 76, 78, 99, 122/, 124, 132

Sethians, 186/, 219

sexual theory, of psychic substance,
20m

sexuality, 90-9171; undervaluation
of, 226

Shaare Kedusha, 21872

shadow, 8-10, 17, 30, 33, 155, 233/,
255, 259, 260; Antichrist as, 41;
of arcane substance, 18772; as-
similation into conscious person-
ality, 9; in Christ's birth, 4.111,
110; consciousness of, 8; doubling
of, 120; fear of, 33; fish as shadow

of God, 119; good qualities of,
266; integration of, 22; and Moses
quaternio, 228, 244; has negative
feeling-value, 28; personal un-
conscious and, 169; quaternio,
22972, 230/, 233/, 244, 255/, 260;
represents chthonic world, 34

Shatapatha Brahmana, 11372, 11472

sheep, land of, 16

Shekinah, 268

shepherd, 103; good, 103

Shu, 207

Shulamite, 210

Sibyls, Erythraean, 7272

Silberer, Herbert, 16472

Simon Magus, 197, 220

sister, 12

skull, 238

slave's post, 7672, 78

Smith, E. M., 9272, 9472

smoke, 101

snail, 226

snake, 72, 233^; Aesculapian, 188;
allegory of Christ, 233, 245, 247;
on cross, 7872; Mercurius as, 232;
in New Testament, 245; signifies
evil/wisdom, 234; and Son, 188;
symbolism of, 186; as symbol, of
instinct, 244; — , of self, 226; — ,
of wisdom, 245

Soderberg, Hans, 14772

Sodom, 59

sol niger, Saturn as, 197

Solomon ben Gabirol, 74

Solomon ben Isaac, 80, 81

solvents, 160

soma, in God, 254

son, 185, 186; as Father's thought of
own being, 193; and mother, 11/;
symbol for God, 195

son of God, serpent as, 188

son of Man, 203, 218; pictures of,

195

sons of God, two, 42/, 57, 58
Song of Solomon: (1 : 1), 205; (1 : 5),
210; (4: 5), 107; (8 : 7), 129

328

INDEX

sonship, threefold, of God, 64/
Sophia, 6571; Achamoth, 19771;

Prounikos, 54, 196/
"Soul, My Lady," 13
soul: 64, 142; and anima, 13; ani-
mal, 11 72; as bride of Christ, 39;
"excrescent," 234; fish as symbol
of, 122; human, of Christ, 39; as
second Eve, 206; as sphere, 136;
"twittering," 209; world-, see
anima mundi
"soul in fetters," 19772, 20871
space-time continuum, 24, 25871
space-time quaternio, 251, 252, 253,

257
spark, 219/

Sphere, the, 9371; soul as, 136
spider, 226

Spiegelberg, W., 12271
spinal cord, 233
Spinning Woman, 11
spirit, 64, 142; animus and, 16;

archetype of, 85/; of the world,

142
"Spirit in the Bottle, the," 235
spirits, seven, 10571
spiritus, 160, 187
Spitteler, Carl, 13, 26771
splitting, 119/, 12071; of conscious/

unconscious, 247-4871; of Original

Man, 204
spondilo, 138
spring-point, 93
square, and circle, 224/, 264
stabilization, 243
stag, 150
Stahl, G. E., 251
star, rising of, and birth of hero,

117
"star of the sea," 128
starfish, 128/, 15471
steel, 133; alchemical, 161; see also

chalybs
stella marina, 128/
Stella maris, 135, 137
Stephen, St., 7571

Stephen of Canterbury, 112

sterility, feeling of, 9

stimuli: endosomatic, 3; uncon-
scious, 4

stone: animate, 159; as Christ-
image, 67; cinedian, 138/; com-
plement of serpent, 245; derived
from circle and quaternity motif,
224; dragon's, 138; Heracleian,
185; inner man as, 208; making
the, a "human attitude," 166;
projection of unified self, 170;
psychic relationship to man, 167;
symbol of self, 246; unity of, 170;
see also lapis

Strauss, Heinz Arthur, 8271

subject, necessary to consciousness,
3; and object, differentiation in
consciousness, 193

"subjective factor," 223

sublimation, 259

subliminal, see unconscious

substance, metaphysical, 161

sucking-fish, 140

sulphur(s), 171, 23971, 250

Summa Fratris Reneri, 14671

Summum Bonum, God as, 45/, 52

sun, 249, 260

Sutech, 78

swan, 81

Swedenborg, Emanuel, 198

Switzerland, 225

sword, 187

Syene, 121

symbol(s): in alchemy, 179; autono-
mous, 31; of Christ and the devil,
72; dogma as, 175; Gnostic, 196^;
for God, 195; Indian, 175; mean-
ing of, 73; of opposite sex, 10;
pictorial, psychology and, 194;
polarity of, 129/; quaternary, in
dreams, 132; theriomorphic, 186;
triadic, 24371; uniting, 194; of
unity and totality, 31; see also
anima; animus; mandala

symbolism: sexual, Christ and, 202;
theriomorphic, of self, 226

329

INDEX

"symbolum": as aqua doctrinae,
180; creed as, 174

symptoms, localization of, 186

synchronicity, 85, 150, 168, 258; of
archetype, 184

Synesius of Cyrene, 116, 1597*

synthesis, 260

Syria: cult of fish in, 121; dove and
fish in, 115; round fish in, 138

syzygy(-ies)> 33> l91> 254; Adam/
Eve, 254; anima/animus, n/f,
266; in Clementine Homilies, 54;
divine, in Christianity, 21; proto-
type of divine couples, 34; Valen-
tinian, 228; wholeness superior to,
31; see also opposites

Tabari, Chronique of, 79ft, 107

Tabula smaragdina, 126, 265

Tacitus, 76

talents, parable of the, 166

Talmud, Babylonian, 5872, 5971, 6072,
79, 8on, 83, 107, 116, 117, 118,
149; and astrology, 81

Tanit, 121

tanninim, 79, 80, 81

Tantrism, 21771

Tao, 58, 69; symbol for God, 195;
as "valley spirit," 180

Targums, 10771

Tatian, 46

tebund, 120

Tefnut, 207

Tehom, 237

WXetos, 212, 21371

reXe/oxm, see completeness

temperature, Arctic, 52

tension: conscious/ unconscious, 20;
signified by Christ's advent, 44;
in uroboros, 248/; see also oppo-
sites

tentacles, 128

teoqualo, 144

Tertullian, 37, 76, gon

tetrads, 191

tetrameria, 254; alchemical, 259

Tetramorph, 36

Thabit ibn Qurrah, 126

Thales, 157, 199

Theatrum chemicum, 13071, 13m,
1327*, 13771, 13971, 14071, 14371,
15671, 15771, 15872, 16072, 16371,

18772, 19772, 22072, 22172, 23572,
23772, 23872, 23972, 24072, 26l72,
26572

thema, 136

Theodor Bar-Kuni, 197

Theologia Germanica, 89

Theophilus of Antioch, 46

Theophrastus, 141, 222

theoria, 142, 171, 179, 181

Thessalonians, Second Epistle to

the: (2 : 3/f), 3672
Thiele, Georg, gin
thieves, two, at crucifixion, 44, 69,

255

thinking, 32

third, superordinate, 180

Thomas, Acts of, 116, 197

Thomas Aquinas, St., 51/, 87,
17872

Thorndike, Lynn, 9672, 98/2, 10272

Thracian riders, 73

three: as defective quaternity, 224;
and one, motif, 225, 253; see also
dilemma

Tiamat, 120

Tifereth, 268

Tigris, 199

Timaeus, 136

Timochares, planisphere of, 91

tincture, synonyms for, 137

Titus of Bostra, 48

Tobit, 113

tongue(s), 135, 137; fiery, 129, i35n

tortoise, 226

totality, 34, 143/; becoming con-
scious, 259; Christ as divine, 37,
39, 41; chthonic, 224; idea of,

330

INDEX

62n; images of, 40; spiritual, 224;

symbols of, 31, 190; see also

wholeness
"Tractatulus Avicennae," 16771
"Tractatus Aristotelis . . .," 235*1
Tractatus aureus, 18771, 220, 237/1,

239
tradition, 181
transference, 229
transformation: Christian, 169;

formula of, 259; prefigurations

in, 261; skull as vessel of, 238;

tree as symbol of, 235
transition, from waking to sleeping,

28
treasure, guarded by dragon /snake,

234

tree: philosophical, 235; and ser-
pent, 235; as symbol of self, 226

Trevisanus, see Bernardus Trevi-
sanus

triad: lower, 99, 224; male and
female, in pseudo-Clement, 55;
in man, 22; Naassene, 209; op-
posed to trinity, 224

trichotomies, 65/

trickster, Mercurius as, 20371

Trinity, the, 35, 131, 253, Plate II;
devil lacking in, 86; divine sphere
of, 57; dogma of, 177; Jesus' soul
as, 201; Kepler and, 207; Naas-
sene, 197, 226; space/ time/causal-
ity, 258; spiritual totality, 224;
triad opposed to, 224

Troad, the, 15671

truth(s), 171; first, 178; psychologi-
cal, 27

Tuamutef, 123

Tuat, 122

Turba philosophorum, 126, 137,

143, 22071, 250

Turukalukundram, 21771

twelve, 224

Twins, the, see Gemini; Saviour of

the, 7971, 12271
Typhon, 99, 121, 122

Ugarit, 119

Uhlhorn, 25471

umbra Jesu, 106

Unas, 122

uncertainty relationship, between
conscious and unconscious, 226

uncomeliness, outward, 140

unconscious: alchemy and symbol-
ism of unconscious processes, 179;
cannot be "done with," 20; col-
lective, see collective unconscious;
compensation in, 124; contents
of, and man's totality, 140; con-
tents of ego, three groups, 4, 7;
dawn-state and, 148; fear of, 33;
fishes as product of, 149; frighten-
ing figures in, 225; Gnostics and,
190; in Hippolytus and Epiphan-
ius, 66; importance of, 5; integra-
tion of contents, 23; organizing
principle of, 204; "our sea"
symbol of, 142; personal and im-
personal, 7, 169; problems of inte-
gration of, 181; processes, com-
pensatory to conscious, 204;
Proteus personifying, 216; self
and the, 3; soul as projection of,
142; theriomorphism and, 145; as
the unknown in the inner world,
3; without qualities, 191

unconsciousness: and proneness to
suggestion, 247-4871; sin of, 19271

uncontrollable natural forces, ac-
tion of, 25/

underworld, gods of, 224

unicorn, 150

unity, 31, 34; complement of qua-
ternity, 224; in Kircher, 263; as
symbol of self, 226; transcendent,
stone as, 170

Unknown, the: ego and, 3; two
groups of objects in, 3

Upanishads, see Brihaddranyaka
and Kena

Urania, 8971

INDEX

uroboros, 190, 246, 248, 257, 259,
264

Valentinians, 6571, 190, 191, 19771,

228
Valentinus, 4m, 110, 23471, 269
value, 27/f; feeling as function of,

32
value quanta, 29
values, reversal of, 233
Vamana, 176
vas, 238; naturale, 241; see also

vessel
Vaughan, Thomas, 13372
Vedas, 204
"veiled one," 18
Venus ( $ ), 76, 7771, 112, 155
Veritas, 160, 161, 171, 181; prima,

17871
vessel: in alchemy, 238/f; Hermetic/

nigromantic, 240; as symbol, 224/
Vigenere, Blaise de, 132, 139, 197*1,

250
vinegar, 23972; see also ace turn
viper, 72
Vir Unus, 205

virgin, mother-goddess as, 104
Virgo (TTJ2), 77^, 8072, 10472, 105;

Mercurius as, 127
Virolleaud, Charles, 119
virtues, 24, 25
Vishnu, 113, 11472, 176
"Visio Arislei," see "Aenigmata ex

Visione Arislei"
visions, 223
Vitus, Richardus, 1372
voice, fourfold, of Christ, 206
"volatile," winged beings as, 120
Voltaire, 9872
Vollers, Karl, 11 in
Vulcan, 249/, 252

Wackerbarth, Graf August J. L.
von, 80

Waite, Arthur Edward, 13372

Waldenses, 83, 150

wand, golden, of Hermes, 208

water: in alchemy, 159/, 180, 249;
baptismal, 180; bright, 139; in
dreams, 225; of life, 155; living,
184, 199/, 207; magical, 187; as
magnetic agent, 188; prime sub-
stance, 199; real, used in ritual,
188; of rivers of Paradise, 199/;
symbol and, 180

"wedding, chymical," 40, 268

Weiss, Johannes, 21372

Werblowsky, Zwi, 58

West, and Eastern thought, 176

whale-dragon, 111, 118

wheat-sheaf, 105

wheel: as symbol, 224; of birth, 136,
137, 224; of heaven, 136

White, Victor, O.P., 6m, 17872

whitening, 148; see also albedo;
dealbatio

whole: present in ego, 111; pro-
creative nature of, 201

wholeness, 169, 183; archetype of,
40; in Christ, 41, 6272; empirical,
31; image of, x, 24; of individual,
195; knowledge as, 222; para-
doxical, 145; psychic, and God-
image, 198; restoration of, 259;
symbols of, 40, 171, 194, 195, 198;
— , and God, 195; see also com-
pleteness; totality

Wickes, Frances G., 22072

Wilhelm, Richard, 26472

will: free, 5/; of God, 26/; and im-
pulses, 27; omnipotence of, 26;
and psyche, 4

wind, north, 100, 120, 12572

wine, 225

Wirth, Albrecht, 11672, 11772

Wischnitzer-Bernstein, Rahel, 11572

wise old man, 22, 152, 210, 229

witches, 175

wolf, 150

woman: in Apocalypse, 105; clothed
with the sun, 103; image of, 13;

332

INDEX

from side of Christ, 204; star-
crowned, 12, 103/
Word, the, 200; see also Logos
world situation, present, 70
world-soul/world spirit, see anima

mundi
world-views, parallel, 173
World War, second, 36
wrath, of Yahweh, see Yahweh
"wrath-fire," God's, 61
Wunsche, August, 106/1, 107/1

Yahweh, 46, 229; changing concept
of, 192; demiurge, 65, 75; in-
justice of, 55; justice of, 59;
monsters of, 116, 118, 123, see
also Behemoth, Leviathan; Saturn
and, 197; unreliability of, 108;
wrath of, 58/, 105

Yajiiavalkya, 223

Yajui, Son

Yama, 217/1

yang/yin relationship, 58, 180

year: Christ as, 204; Platonic, 8 in

Yehoshua/Yeshua, see Joshua

Yima, 24671

yod, 2i8n

yoga, Buddhism and, 176

Zarathustra, 246/1
Zechariah, Book of: (4 : 10), 105/1
Zeesar, 210-11
Zen Buddhism, 169
Zeus, 206/1

Zipporah, 209/1, 227/, 244, 251, 252
zodia, 118, 148

zodiac, 94/1; signs of, 81, 230/1
Zohar, 107/1, 117, 214
Zoroaster, 220/1

Zosimos, 65/1, 157/1, 182, 197/*, 237/1,
238, 245/1

333

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF

C. G. JUNG

A he publication of the first complete edition, in English, of the works
of C. G. Jung was undertaken by Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., in
England and by Bollingen Foundation in the United States. The Ameri-
can edition is number XX in Bollingen Series, which since 1967 has been
published by Princeton University Press. The edition contains revised
versions of works previously published, such as Psychology of the Uncon-
scious, which is now entitled Symbols of Transformation; works originally
written in English, such as Psychology and Religion; works not previously
translated, such as Aion; and, in general, new translations of virtually all
of Professor Jung's writings. Prior to his death, in 1961, the author super-
vised the textual revision, which in some cases is extensive. Sir Herbert
Read (d. 1968), Dr. Michael Fordham, and Dr. Gerhard Adler compose
the Editorial Committee; the translator is R. F. C. Hull (except for Volume
2) and William McGuire is executive editor.

The price of the volumes varies according to size; they are sold sepa-
rately, and may also be obtained on standing order. Several of the volumes
are extensively illustrated. Each volume contains an index and, in most
cases, a bibliography; the final volume will contain a complete bibliography
of Professor Jung's writings and a general index to the entire edition.

In the following list, dates of original publication are given in paren-
theses (of original composition, in brackets). Multiple dates indicate
revisions.

•l. PSYCHIATRIC STUDIES

On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena

(1902)
On Hysterical Misreading (1904)
Cryptomnesia (1905)
On Manic Mood Disorder (1903)

A Case of Hysterical Stupor in a Prisoner in Detention (1902)
On Simulated Insanity (1903)

A Medical Opinion on a Case of Simulated Insanity (1904)
A Third and Final Opinion on Two Contradictory Psychiatric Diag-
noses (1906)
On the Psychological Diagnosis of Facts (1905)

2. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES

Translated by Leopold Stein in collaboration with Diana Riviere

STUDIES IN WORD ASSOCIATION (1904-7)

The Associations of Normal Subjects (by Jung and F. Riklin)

Experimental Observations on Memory

The Psychological Diagnosis of Evidence

An Analysis of the Associations of an Epileptic

The Association Method (1910)

The Family Constellation (1910)

Reaction-Time in the Association Experiment

Disturbances in Reproduction in the Association Experiment

The Psychopathological Significance of the Association Experiment

Psychoanalysis and Association Experiments

Association, Dream, and Hysterical Symptom

PSYCHOPHYSICAL RESEARCHES (1907-8)

On Psychophysical Relations of the Association Experiment
Psychophysical Investigations with the Galvanometer and Pneumo-
graph in Normal and Insane Individuals (by F. Peterson and
Jung)
Further Investigations on the Galvanic Phenomenon and Respiration
in Normal and Insane Individuals (by C. Ricksher and Jung)

f3. THE PSYCHOGENESIS OF MENTAL DISEASE
The Psychology of Dementia Praecox (1907)
The Content of the Psychoses (1908/1914)
On Psychological Understanding (1914)
A Criticism of Bleuler's Theory of Schizophrenic Negativism (1911)

* Published 1957; 2nd edn., 1970. f Published i960.

On the Importance of the Unconscious in Psychopathology (1914)

On the Problem of Psychogenesis in Mental Disease (1919)

Mental Disease and the Psyche (1928)

On the Psychogenesis of Schizophrenia (1939)

Recent Thoughts on Schizophrenia (1957)

Schizophrenia (1958)

*4. FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

Freud's Theory of Hysteria: A Reply to Aschaffenburg (1906)

The Freudian Theory of Hysteria (1908)

The Analysis of Dreams (1909)

A Contribution to the Psychology of Rumour (1910-11)

On the Significance of Number Dreams (1910-11)

Morton Prince, "The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams": A

Critical Review (1911)
On the Criticism of Psychoanalysis (1910)
Concerning Psychoanalysis (1912)
The Theory of Psychoanalysis (1913)
General Aspects of Psychoanalysis (1913)
Psychoanalysis and Neurosis (1916)
Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis: A Correspondence between

Dr. Jung and Dr. Loy (1914)
Prefaces to "Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology" (1916, 1917)
The Significance of the Father in the Destiny of the Individual

(19°9/1949)
Introduction to Kranefeldt's "Secret Ways of the Mind" (1930)
Freud and Jung: Contrasts (1929)

f5. SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION (1911-12/1952)

PART I

Introduction

Two Kinds of Thinking

The Miller Fantasies: Anamnesis

The Hymn of Creation

The Song of the Moth

PART 11
Introduction
The Concept of Libido
The Transformation of Libido
The Origin of the Hero (continued)

* Published 1961.

f Published 1956; 2nd edn., 1967. (65 plates, 43 text figures.)

5. (continued)

Symbols of the Mother and of Rebirth

The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother

The Dual Mother

The Sacrifice

Epilogue

Appendix: The Miller Fantasies

6. PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES (1921)
Introduction

The Problem of Types in the History of Classical and Medieval

Thought
Schiller's Ideas on the Type Problem
The Apollinian and the Dionysian
The Type Problem in Human Character
The Type Problem in Poetry
The Type Problem in Psychopathology
The Type Problem in Aesthetics
The Type Problem in Modern Philosophy
The Type Problem in Biography
General Description of the Types
Definitions
Epilogue
Four Papers on Psychological Typology (1913, 1925, 1931, 1936)

•7. TWO ESSAYS ON ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

On the Psychology of the Unconscious (1917/1926/1943)
The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious (1928)
Appendices: New Paths in Psychology (1912); The Structure of the
Unconscious (1916) (new versions, with variants, 1966)

f8. THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE PSYCHE
On Psychic Energy (1928)
The Transcendent Function ([1916]/ 1957)
A Review of the Complex Theory (1934)

The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology (1929)
Psychological Factors Determining Human Behavior (1937)
Instinct and the Unconscious (1919)
The Structure of the Psyche (1927/1931)
On the Nature of the Psyche (1947/1954)

* Published 1953; 2nd edn., 1966.
f Published i960; 2nd edn., 1969.

General Aspects of Dream Psychology (1916/1948)

On the Nature of Dreams (1945/1948)

The Psychological Foundations of Belief in Spirits (1920/1948)

Spirit and Life (1926)

Basic Postulates of Analytical Psychology (1931)

Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung (1928/1931)

The Real and the Surreal (1933)

The Stages of Life (1930-1931)

The Soul and Death (1934)

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1952)

Appendix: On Synchronicity (1951)

*9. part 1. THE ARCHETYPES AND THE
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (1934/1954)

The Concept of the Collective Unconscious (1936)

Concerning the Archetypes, with Special Reference to the Anima

Concept (1936/1954)
Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype (1938/1954)
Concerning Rebirth (1940/1950)
The Psychology of the Child Archetype (1940)
The Psychological Aspects of the Kore (1941)
The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales (1945/1948)
On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure (1954)
Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation (1939)
A Study in the Process of Individuation (1934/1950)
Concerning Mandala Symbolism (1950)
Appendix: Mandalas (1955)

*g. part 11. AION (1951)

RESEARCHES INTO THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SELF

The Ego

The Shadow

The Syzygy: Anima and Animus

The Self

Christ, a Symbol of the Self

The Sign of the Fishes

The Prophecies of Nostradamus

The Historical Significance of the, Fish

The Ambivalence of the Fish Symbol (continued)

* Published 1959; 2nd edn., 1968. (Part I: 79 plates, with 29 in colour.)

9. (continued)

The Fish in Alchemy

The Alchemical Interpretation of the Fish

Background to the Psychology of Christian Alchemical Symbolism

Gnostic Symbols of the Self

The Structure and Dynamics of the Self

Conclusion

*io. CIVILIZATION IN TRANSITION
The Role of the Unconscious (1918)
Mind and Earth (1927/1931)
Archaic Man (1931)

The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man (1928/1931)
The Love Problem of a Student (1928)
Woman in Europe (1927)

The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man (1933/1934)
The State of Psychotherapy Today (1934)

Preface and Epilogue to "Essays on Contemporary Events" (1946)
Wotan (1936)

After the Catastrophe (1945)
The Fight with the Shadow (1946)
The Undiscovered Self (Present and Future) (1957)
Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth (1958)
A Psychological View of Conscience (1958)
Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology (1959)
Introduction to Wolff's "Studies in Jungian Psychology" (1959)
The Swiss Line in the European Spectrum (1928)
Reviews of Keyserling's "America Set Free" (1930) and "La Revo-
lution Mondiale" (1934)
The Complications of American Psychology (1930)
The Dreamlike World of India (1939)
What India Can Teach Us (1939)
Appendix: Documents (1933-1938)

fn. PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION: WEST AND EAST

WESTERN RELIGION

Psychology and Religion (The Terry Lectures) (1938/1940)

A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity (1942/1948)

Transformation Symbolism in the Mass (1942/1954)

* Published 1964; 2nd edn., 1970. (8 plates.)
f Published 1958; 2nd edn., 1969.

Forewords to White's "God and the Unconscious" and Werblowsky's

"Lucifer and Prometheus" (1952)
Brother Klaus (1933)
Psychotherapists or the Clergy (1932)
Psychoanalysis and the Cure of Souls (1928)
Answer to Job (1952)

EASTERN RELIGION

Psychological Commentaries on "The Tibetan Book of the Great
Liberation" (1939/1954) and "The Tibetan Book of the Dead"

(i935/1953)

Yoga and the West (1936)

Foreword to Suzuki's "Introduction to Zen Buddhism" (1939)

The Psychology of Eastern Meditation (1943)

The Holy Men of India: Introduction to Zimmer's "Der Weg zum

Selbst" (1944)
Foreword to the "I Ching" (1950)

*i2. PSYCHOLOGY AND ALCHEMY (1944)

Prefatory Note to the English Edition ([1951?] added 1967)
Introduction to the Religious and Psychological Problems of Alchemy
Individual Dream Symbolism in Relation to Alchemy (1936)
Religious Ideas in Alchemy (1937)
Epilogue

fi3. ALCHEMICAL STUDIES

Commentary on "The Secret of the Golden Flower" (1929)
The Visions of Zosimos (1938/1954)
Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon (1942)
The Spirit Mercurius (1943/1948)
The Philosophical Tree (1945/1954)

+ 14. MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS (1955-56)

AN INQUIRY INTO THE SEPARATION AND
SYNTHESIS OF PSYCHIC OPPOSITES IN ALCHEMY

The Components of the Coniunctio

The Paradoxa

The Personification of the Opposites

Rex and Regina (continued)

* Published 1953; 2nd edn., completely revised, 1968. (270 illustrations.)
•f Published 1968. (50 plates, 4 text figures.)
j Published 1963; 2nd edn., 1970. (10 plates.)

14. (continued)
Adam and Eve
The Conjunction

♦15. THE SPIRIT IN MAN, ART, AND LITERATURE
Paracelsus (1929)
Paracelsus the Physician (1941)
Sigmund Freud in His Historical Setting (1932)
In Memory of Sigmund Freud (1939)
Richard Wilhelm: In Memoriam (1930)
On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry (1922)
Psychology and Literature (1930/1950)
"Ulysses": A Monologue (1932)
Picasso (1932)

fi6. THE PRACTICE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

Principles of Practical Psychotherapy (1935)

What Is Psychotherapy? (1935)

Some Aspects of Modern Psychotherapy (1930)

The Aims of Psychotherapy (1931)

Problems of Modern Psychotherapy (1929)

Psychotherapy and a Philosophy of Life (1943)

Medicine and Psychotherapy (1945)

Psychotherapy Today (1945)

Fundamental Questions of Psychotherapy (1951)

SPECIFIC PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

The Therapeutic Value of Abreaction (1921/1928)
The Practical Use of Dream-Analysis (1934)
The Psychology of the Transference (1946)

Appendix: The Realities of Practical Psychotherapy ([1937] added,
1966)

+ 17. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY
Psychic Conflicts in a Child (1910/1946)

Introduction to Wickes's "Analyse der Kinderseele" (1927/1931)
Child Development and Education (1928)

Analytical Psychology and Education: Three Lectures (1926/1946)
The Gifted Child (1943)

* Published 1966.

f Published 1954; 2nd edn., revised and augmented, 1966. (13 illustrations.)

X Published 1954.

The Significance of the Unconscious in Individual Education (1928)
The Development of Personality (1934)
Marriage as a Psychological Relationship (1925)

18. MISCELLANY

Posthumous and Other Miscellaneous Works

19. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX

Complete Bibliography of C. G. Jung's Writings
General Index to the Collected Works

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF C. G. JUNG

This edition, in eighteen or more volumes, will contain
revised versions of earlier works by Jung, works not
previously translated, and works originally written in
English. In general, it will present new translations of
the major body of Jung's writings. The entire edition
constitutes No. XX in Bollingen Series.

1. Psychiatric Studies ( 1 957)

2. Experimental Researches (in preparation)

3. The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease
(1960)

4. Freud and Psychoanalysis (1961)

5. Symbols of Transformation
(1956; 2nd edn., 1967)

6. Psychological Types (in preparation)

7. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology
(1953; 2nd edn., 1966)

8. The Structure and Dynamics of the
Psyche (7960/ 2nd edn., 1969)

9. part I. The Archetypes and the Collective
Unconscious (7 959; 2nd edn., 1968)

9. part ii. Aion: Researches into the
Phenomenology of the Self (7959;
2nd edn., 1968)

10. Civilization in Transition (1964)

1 1 . Psychology and Religion: West and East
(1958; 2nd edn., 1969)

12. Psychology and Alchemy
(7953; 2nd edn., 1968)

13. Alchemical Studies (7 968)

14. Mysterium Coniunctionis
(7 963; 2nd edn., 1970)

15. The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature
(7966J

16. The Practice of Psychotherapy
(1954; 2nd edn., 1966)

17. The Development of Personality
(1954; 2nd pr., 1964)

Final Volumes: Miscellaneous Works,
Bibliography, and General Index

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

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